
ClassISFiM 
Book. ■ (^ 



CDEXBIGKT DEPOSIT. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



EDWARD WYNDHAM TENNANT 

With Portraits in Photogravure. 
Demy 8vo. Third Edition. 



THE BODLEY HEAD 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

A VOLUME DEALING WITH SPIRIT- 
COMMUNICATION RECEIVED IN 

the fop: Qie book-tests .by 

PAMELA l si CONNER WITH A 

PREFACL m SIR OLIVER LODGE 




'Sorrows are past and in the end is shown 
The treasure of Immortality." 



NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY 

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD 

MCMXXI 



-J)f \30 






Copyright, 192 1, 
By JOHN LANE COMPANY 



■9 !32! 



Press of 

J. J. Little & Ives Company 

New York, U. S. A. 



©CI.A608812 



'It is decreed, the hidden word is spoken, 
The Earthen Vessel worthy stands 
To hold the sacred wine!' 



INTRODUCTION 

The notes taken at the time of the sittings 
from which this narrative has been drawn have 
been preserved, and are in my possession; and 
these notes will be at the disposal of any one 
who may care to see them in corroboration. 

The failures have been recorded as well as 
those considered successful, so that the reader 
may come to a true understanding of the case 
and count on an impartial rendering. 

Nothing has been kept back, save when the 
message in the Book-Test has had three or even 
more points of contact, and some among these 
have been considered by the recipient as being 
of too private a nature to be published. When 
this is so, the reader is notified of the suppression. 

In Appendix I to this volume Mrs. Leonard's 
account is given of her first introduction to Feda. 

One point requires emphasis. 

Our conviction that we have spoken with our 
Son does not rest upon the evidence of these 
Book-Tests alone. They are but so many blades 
in a green pasture, a few clear drops in the waters 



viii THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

of comfort that have been, and remain, an inex- 
haustible stream; but they have one paramount 
claim above the forms of spirit-communication 
more commonly known. Like the system of 
Cross-Correspondence, they have been devised to 
provide proof of a discarnate agency. Many 
who long to communicate with those who have 
gone on, dread the action of telepathy operating 
between their own mind and the mind of the 
medium. These Book-Tests destroy the possi- 
bility of such telepathy, and they require of the 
long arm of Coincidence a very long arm indeed. 
In the best instances messages have been traced 
and proved apposite, in books described and 
found in houses unknown to the medium (as in 
Book-Tests I. and II., and Book-Tests X. and 
XL), and unknown both to medium and recipient 
(as in Book-Tests XIII. and XIV.) . When this 
is so, it may be conceded that they provide a 
strong argument in favour of the continuity of 
personality beyond the grave. 

Pamela Glenconner. 

Wilsford Manor, 
Salisbury, 
July, 1920. 



PREFATORY AND EXPLANATORY 
NOTE 

By Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. 



PREFATORY NOTE 

I AM asked to tell the readers of this book how 
the curious phenomenon now known by the name 
of "Book-Tests" arose, and what is its probable 
significance. 

It seems to be part of a scheme, devised by 
those who are communicating with us from "the 
other side," to get messages through in a way 
that cannot be attributed to any ordinarily 
recognised variety of subconscious activity on the 
part of the medium, nor to telepathy or mind- 
reading between the medium and the person who 
is receiving the messages. This is undoubtedly 
the appearance; and this is what I consider to 
be the truth. 

After the death in 1901 of F. W. H. Myers — 
who was well aware of our difficulty in accepting 
spirit-communion, or the continued mental activ- 
ity of the dead, as an authentic or probable ex- 
planation of the undoubted lucidity of an en- 
tranced medium — we gradually found that as a 
supplement to the more ordinary and simple 
domestic communications, which have long been 



xii THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

known and which still continue, certain special 
devices were being employed — most of them 
apparently initiated by Myers — whose object it 
clearly was to reduce the number of alternative 
explanations, and especially to eliminate telepathy 
from living people as a necessary element in 
interpreting the phenomenon. 

The first success in this more elaborately 
evidential direction was met with in the system 
of Cross-Correspondence; that is, the obtaining 
of similar or corresponding messages, almost 
simultaneously, through three or four different 
amateur mediums or automatic writers, some of 
whom lived in different countries and were 
unacquainted with each other. These ladies 
wrote quite independently and spontaneously, 
and often did not understand the meaning of 
what they were writing; but their writing told 
them to send unintelligible script up to the 
Central Office of the S.P.R. in London, presum- 
ably for further study. An investigator, who 
had the advantage of being able to collate the 
manuscripts, then found that the disjointed sen- 
tences, the apparently stray literary quotations, 
exhibited unmistakable coherence and corre- 



PREFATORY NOTE xiii 

spondence one with another, and moreover were 
capable of significant and characteristic inter- 
pretation. 

That is the system of Cross^Correspondence 
which, beginning simply, gradually grew very 
elaborate, and has been reported on at consider- 
able length, though not even yet fully, in several 
recent volumes of the Proceedings of the S.P.R. 

The next method adopted, by what is now con- 
sidered the S.P.R. Group of Communicators on 
the other side, was the sending of more or less 
obscure literary allusions and the invention of 
classical problems of such intricacy and essential 
scholarship that they were beyond the scope of 
the transmitting medium, and were often unin- 
telligible at first to the people receiving and study- 
ing them. Sometimes, indeed, they were recon- 
dite enough to puzzle living classical scholars, 
until some hint or clue was afforded by the osten- 
sible framer of the problem, when the significance 
of the whole leaped to light. 

The best known instances of this kind of prob- 
lem are the two called respectively "The Baptism 
of Statius" and "The Ear of Dionysius," both 
skilfully reported on by the Rt. Hon. G. W. 



xiv THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

Balfour. Another decidedly simpler one, of an 
earlier date, was contained in replies given auto- 
matically to a question about Lethe; this was re- 
ported on in its first stage by Mr. J. G. Pidding- 
ton, and in its second stage by myself {Proceed- 
ings of the S.P.R., Vols. XXIV. and XXV.). 

A third method has now made its appearance, 
and has been employed at intervals during and 
since the War, consisting in the development of 
what are called "Book-Tests." Of these we now 
have a large number of independent records, 
which are being examined by Mrs. Henry Sidg- 
wick and will in due time be critically reported 
on by her. The evident object of this third 
method is to send messages in such a form that 
they shall be unintelligible, not only to the medium 
of communication and to the person receiving 
them, but to everybody, until the clue is followed 
up and the message decoded, when the meaning 
ought to be unmistakable. If tests of this kind 
are successfully accomplished, it is plain that no 
simple kind of mind-reading can be appealed to 
or regarded as a rational explanation. 

The method consists in specifying the number 
of a page in a book, itself indicated only by its 



PREFATORY NOTE xv 

numbered place on a given shelf in a bookcase 
whose position is described, in a house to which 
the medium need have had no access, though a 
house presumably, or usually, well known to the 
ostensible communicator. The idea is that a sen- 
tence shall subsequently be found on that page by 
any one who follows the instructions and identifies 
the book, which sentence shall sufficiently convey 
an intended message, or shall show a similarity in 
thought to what has otherwise been said, or shall 
be appropriate to the actual circumstances or past 
connection of communicator and intended re- 
cipient. 

Chance-coincidence suggests itself as the first 
obvious explanation; but though chance-coinci- 
dence may serve for a few instances, the number 
of such tests already received is by this time great 
enough to make that explanation extremely diffi- 
cult — and in fact almost to put it out of court. 
Still it is one which must be seriously discussed, 
for it will inevitably be asked — indeed the ques- 
tion asks itself — how can such a power, the power 
of knowing or perceiving what is on a certain 
page of an unopened unseen and distant book, be 
possessed by any one, whether discarnate or not? 



xvi THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

How can we suppose that such a power is possi- 
ble? How can the feat be done otherwise than 
by prearranged and deceptive ingenuity? 

I have no wish to anticipate the verdict now 
being prepared, based on a long and responsible 
examination of the facts; but to me the question 
is not one that can as yet be answered. Even the 
condition suggested above as naturally to be ex- 
pected — that the book shall be one familiar to 
the communicator — even that seems not really 
essential. There is evidence that sometimes, by 
special effort, a prescribed sealed book, or a book 
in a stranger's house, can be partially read, or 
some details in it correctly given, by an expert 
communicator. And it is even stated, in a re- 
sponsible manner, that some features about the 
first page of to-morrow's Times can be perceived, 
provided the material has already been set up 
in type. (See a series of articles by the Rev. C. 
Drayton Thomas in Light during the early half 
of 1920.) 

What the bearing of this singular clairvoyante 
power may be, and how far it affects our evidence 
for survival, is a subject open to discussion; be- 
cause it may be argued that if all sorts of records 



PREFATORY NOTE xvii 

can be read by means of a clairvoyante human 
faculty, then one proof of survival, based on the 
supposition that some kinds of information super- 
normally received must be traced to an extra- 
terrene source, becomes increasingly difficult or 
uncertain. With that argument, however, I have 
in the present connection nothing to do. 

The existence of the power of reading in a 
closed book is not a new discovery; it had been 
already demonstrated very clearly by that well- 
known automatist of a past generation, Mr. 
Stainton Moses, a Master in University College 
School, London: the details of the test being 
reported in his book called Spirit Teachings (p. 
33 of the Memorial Edition). This unexpected 
and curious power has been attributed sometimes 
to hyperesthesia, sometimes to clairvoyance; but 
to call the power by either of these names is no 
explanation, any more than calling a faculty 
"telepathy" is an explanation. 

If I am pressed to say what explanation, if 
any, begins to commend itself to me, I have to 
confess myself in a difficulty. I can only say, 
without prejudice and without expecting much 
agreement, that it seems to me probable that to 



xviii THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

explain all these things we shall have to admit 
access to a set of mental phenomena hitherto 
ignored by science. It may even be found that 
a few of the things now, and on the whole wisely, 
relegated to the ash pit of superstition will have 
to be disinterred and reconsidered. 

We appear to be on the threshold of a position 
somewhat analogous to that of an isolated savage 
tribe when they first come into superficial contact 
with visitors from countries more developed than 
their own — people who are possessed of strange 
and inexplicable powers. 

Such incursion of higher or extraneous civilisa- 
tion would be resented; assertions as to the exist- 
ence of a white race would be derided; and inter- 
course might be forbidden by the priests; but 
ultimately, for better or for worse, the facts 
would have to be accepted and incorportated with 
ordinary knowledge. 

Such enlargements of experience, if sudden, 
must be fraught with danger; and those who re- 
sist and oppose the incursion may be doing their 
form of service by making its acceptance slow and 
gradual. People in general are not yet called 
upon to face such a position; it is probably un- 



PREFATORY NOTE xix 

desirable that they should. I have stated it as a 
hypothesis the discussion of which I see looming 
in the future — the by no means distant future — 
but it need not at present be regarded as a neces- 
sary outcome from the facts. 

The first thing is to make sure of the facts, 
and to develop an explanation later. If we always 
refused to attend to or utilise a fact until we 
understood it, and had a theory of it, we should 
be in the absurd position of refusing to recognise 
the truth of the statement that unsupported ob- 
jects move towards the centre of the earth; for in 
the present stage of our knowledge "weight" is 
not understood. 

The simpler course is to reject the facts alto- 
gether as manifestly impossible, but the appar- 
ently simple is not necessarily the true ; moreover, 
it is a stultifying attitude to set one's face against 
facts, to refuse to learn from them, and to run 
the risk of denying reality merely because we will 
not take the trouble to investigate and under- 
stand it. The facts are reputably reported, and 
are worthy of critical examination; though critics 
will be wise not to make up their minds hastily, 
but to wait for the promised detailed and cautious 



xx THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

report. The result may be to enlarge experience 
in some ways at present unsuspected. It was 
thought impossible at one time chemically to 
analyse the stars, because no particles of them 
could be put into our test-tubes. 

Truth is recognised as simple only when it is 
adequately and fully grasped. The phenomena 
of spectrum-analysis were a few years ago grow- 
ing so astonishingly complex as to afflict some 
physicists with a kind of despair; the lines in a 
spectrum were so numerous, so oddly grouped, 
and so artificially variable; yet now we see that 
the outcome is going to be a beautiful simple the- 
ory of the structure of atoms — a theory which 
will unify every form of matter and exhibit its 
astounding variety as the result of the ordered 
combination of a few very simple ingredients. 
The multifarious notes of the orchestra are blend- 
ing into a harmonious symphony. 

So it will doubtless be with these psychic facts, 
when we understand them. We may make hy- 
potheses, but to pretend to form any theory about 
Book-Tests at present would be premature; they 
evidently represent an effort at proof of the ex- 
istence of unexpected powers, but to decide how 



PREFATORY NOTE xxi 

those powers are exerted, and to whom, they 
belong, we must wait until by adequate study we 
can frame some reasonable theory which shall 
stand the test of time and the influx of further 
experience. 

Pending that experience I pursue my own, and 
many people's, hypothesis as to the source, though 
not the method, of these Book-Tests. 

Some of the young fellows killed in the War 
have been very energetic and successful in getting 
tests through of this rather difficult kind. Not 
all of them: Raymond has not proved himself 
skilful in this particular method, though he has 
occasionally attempted it, with a success, how- 
ever, in my opinion, hardly beyond chance-coinci- 
dence. But many others have succeeded better, 
and a few careful people have taken the trouble 
to record and subsequently verify their messages 
in the stringent manner required by the standards 
of the S.P.R. These will no doubt be critically 
dealt with in the report expected in due time from 
Mrs. Sidgwick. 

Meanwhile I am personally persuaded that 
Lord and Lady Glenconner, among others, have 
received a number of excellent tests of this kind, 



xxii THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

chiefly through the agency of their eldest son; 
and the account of those with which they and 
their friends have been favoured is now incor- 
porated in the narrative which follows. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION vii 

PREFATORY AND EXPLANATORY NOTE ix 

PART I 

THE "CLOUDS" BOOK-TESTS, I and II . 29 

(From The Letters of Lord Edward Fitz- 
gerald; and from Lotus and Jewel, by 
Edwin Arnold.) 

BOOK-TEST III 35 

("God knows it, I am with you," from the 
Poems of Matthew Arnold.) 

BOOK-TEST IV 38 

(The "Wolfgang" message, from Lewes* Life 
of Goethe.) 

BOOK-TEST V ...... 43 

(The George Washington Book-Test, from 
The Life of George Washington.) 

BOOK-TEST VI 46 

(The Brackett Book-Test, from The World 
We Live In, by E. A. Brackett.) 

BOOK-TEST VII 49 

(The Book-Test of the title of The Story of 
Asseneth.) 



xxiv CONTENTS 



PAGE 



BOOK-TEST VIII 51 

(The Women in the War Book-Test, from 
War Poetry, by X.) 

BOOK-TEST IX 53 

(The Book-Test Earth's Overwhelming Strife, 
from Poems of Pleasure.) 

BOOK-TEST X 54 

(The message for Friends in the Battalion, 
from the dedication of War Poetry, by X.) 

BOOK-TEST XI 55 

(The Book-Test from She.) 

BOOK-TEST XII .60 

(The "Beetle" Book-Test, from Trees, pub- 
lished by Jack, of Edinburgh.) 

BOOK-TEST XIII 62 

(From Juan de la Cruz, The Dark Night of 
the Soul.) 

BOOK-TEST XIV ...... 63 

(The "Valley of Decision" Book-Test, title 
and subsidiary titles, by Edith Wharton.) 

BOOK-TEST XV 64 

(The Agnes Weston Book-Test.) 

BOOK-TEST XVI 65 

(The "Love Endures despite Death's sombre 
will" Book-Test, from Windlestraw.) 

BOOK-TEST XVII 67 

(The "Pilgrim's Vision" Book-Test, from 
Poems, by Oliver Wendell Holmes.) 



CONTENTS xxv 

PAGE 

BOOK-TEST XVIII 73 

(The "Circles" Book-Test, from The Mysti- 
cism of Colour.) 



PART II 
THE DRAYTON THOMAS SERIES 

BOOK-TEST XIX 79 

(The Ecclesiasticus Book-Test.) 

BOOK-TEST XX 87 

(The Eight Words Book-Test.) 

BOOK-TEST XXI . . . . . .go 

(The Doctor Donne Book-Test, from Wal- 
ton's Lives.) 

BOOK-TEST XXII 95 

(The message to E. W. T.'s brothers Book- 
Test, from Ardours and Endurances.) 

BOOK-TEST XXIII 103 

(The Book-Test from The Memoir of 
E. W. T.) 

BOOK-TEST XXIV in 

(The "Caravanning" and "Reflection" Book- 
Test.) 

BOOK-TEST XXV 116 

(The Book-Test of the title of Paradise Lost.) 

BOOK-TEST XXVI 120 

(The "Triumph of Life" Book-Test.) 



xxvi CONTENTS 



PAGE 



BOOK-TEST XXVII 122 

(The "Fruit is at thy feet" Book-Test, from 
the Poems of Shelley.) 

RELIGION AND SPIRITUALISM . . 124 

APPENDIX I 140 

(Mrs. Leonard's account of her introduction 
to Feda.) 

APPENDIX II 144 

(Excerpt from the Phaedo of Plato's "Divine 
Dialogues.") 

APPENDIX III 146 

(A Poem by Emily Bronte.) 

APPENDIX IV 148 

(The "Times" Book-Test.) 

CONCLUSION 152 



PART I 



CHAPTER I 

Book-Test L 

Edward Wyndham Tennant 1 and George 
Heremon Wyndham x are concerned in this test. 
It was given through the mediumship of Mrs. 
Leonard, controlled by Feda, on April 19 17, in 
the drawing-room at Wilsford Manor, Salisbury. 

Pamela Glenconner was taking notes; others 
present being Mrs. Guy Baring, David Tennant, 
Ava Bodley and Josephine Wilkinson. 

Feda. "Bim has brought George again; he 
is so glad his messages reached his Mother. They 
have got a Book-Test for her now, so that she 
can be quite sure it is George talking to her. 
Have you got a book that he was connected with? 
Dark green colour close to the book. Look on 
page 27 if you can find this book, he says, and 
on the left side of the page there is a message 
from him. Or something you could take as a 
message from him." 

1 Edward Wyndham Tennant, known as Bim throughout 
these pages, son of Lord and Lady Glenconner, and George 
Heremon Wyndham, son of Colonel Guy Wyndham, brother 
to Lady Glenconner. 

29 



3 o THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

These directions were sent to George's family. 
His father had lately come to live at Clouds x and 
had placed the books he had brought with him 
in shelves in the drawing-room. He first sought 
among the books that had belonged to George, 
but found they consisted only of a few old lesson 
books, containing nothing applicable; he then 
looked among the other books for one bound in 
green. The first volume he took down was The 
Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald (by 
Thomas Moore, edited by Martin MacDermott, 
Downey & Co., 12 York Street, Covent Garden, 
1897). 

This book is connected with George as the 
writer is George's great-great-grandfather. On 
page 27 the words opening a paragraph are as 
follows : 

"What would I not give to be with you to com- 
fort you, dearest Mother" 

"I guarantee that the narration of the above 
facts is accurate." 

(Signed) Guy Wyndham. 

1 The country seat in Wiltshire, the home of the Percy 
Wyndhams. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 31 

Mrs. Leonard has never visited at Clouds, nor 
has she been there. 

Book-Test II. 

Edward Wyndham Tennant and George 
Heremon Wyndham, communicating through 
the mediumship of Mrs. Leonard, are concerned 
also in this second Book-Test. It was obtained 
on the 25th July, 19 17, in the drawing-room at 
Wilsford Manor, Salisbury, Pamela Glenconner 
taking notes; others present being David Ten- 
nant, Olivia Wyndham, Olive Baring and Leila 
Piatt. 

Feda (speaking through the mediumship of 
Mrs. Leonard). 

"Bim and George are going to get another 
Book-Test through to show that the last one was 
not chance. Bim is very clever at this. Please 
get a pencil, he says, and take everything very 
carefully down. 

"In a home near here, in a lady's room, a 
corner room, not quite square, he gives the letter 
C. . . ." {Note. — Feda did not name the height 
of the shelf, but indicated a height with her 
hand, which David Tennant estimated at 4j4 
feet.) "The seventh book in the shelf counting 



32 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

from the corner of the left-hand side of the fire- 
place. The letter G is also given. The word 
seventh . . . seventh ... he gives the word 
seventh." (This was repeated, with insistence.) 
"On page 84 — or 48 ... a page with a lot of 
white, not much writing on it, only a very' little 
on the page. And what is on the page may be 
taken as a message. There is something that 
deals with the Past and the Future, too, not 
necessarily the immediate Past and Future." 

It was thought, from the letter C being given, 
and "a house near here" being mentioned, that 
Clouds was again intended: a house where 
George Heremon and Edward Wyndham Ten- 
nant's grandmother lived. A search was made 
in her sitting-room, which is a corner room, and 
not quite square. 

In the position indicated there are four shelves, 
each divided into two. Colonel Wyndham first 
took down the seventh book from the corner in 
the first partition of the top shelf but one, but 
found nothing applicable. He then took the 
seventh book in the second partition, which was 
Lotus and Jewel, by Sir Edwin Arnold. On page 
84 he found but one quatrain, the page otherwise 
blank; it was the last in a poem which was the 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 33 

seventh of a series, entitled A Casket of Gems, 1 
it was also in the seventh volume of the edition. 
It read as follows : 

u We shall not reach them, save with Earth as 

Vessel, 
Sky for our Sea, and for long Journey, Life — 
But if love steers, at last our sails may nestle 
Furled, in those Far-off Isles, past storm and 

strife!' 



The directions given appeared here to be ful- 
filled, save an allusion to the Past and the Future ; 
but in the same poem, page 83, and on subse- 
quent pages, it was found "The Happy Isles" 
and "Paradise" are described, and the lines occur: 

"Where the wonder of 'whence] and ( why, } and 
'whither* are shown; 
The Past perceived, the Future sure, and 
known" 

a Kegan Paul, Trench, Tnibner & Co. 



34 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

"Where Death does not come, nor Change, nor 
Hate, nor Care" 



"Where we shall find delightful friends and lovers 
And hear no word of Woe on any lip, . . /' 



"Thither to sail!" 



The book was uncut. 



"The above statement concerning this Book- 
Test is accurate." 

{Signature) Guy Wyndham. 



I include here the following letter from my 
brother, Colonel Wyndham. He writes to Lady 
Trowbridge, who at that time was collecting the 
Book-Tests in the interests of the Society for 
Psychical Research. 

Clouds, 
East Knoyle, 
July i\th, 1918. 

Dear Lady Trowbridge, 

I send you all the information I can on 
the subject. The first test is a very good one 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 35 

provided one allows the book to be considered 
connected with my son. 

The second test is certainly remarkable. 
No doubt there are discrepancies, but the main 
fact is that the directions given were sufficient 
for the passages to be easily found. 

Yours sincerely, 
Guy Wyndham. 



Book-Test HI. 
This Book-Test was given through the medium- 
ship again of Mrs. Leonard, controlled by Feda; 
the communicator this time being Captain Evelyn 
Piatt of 1st Batt. of the Coldstream Guards, who 
was killed in France on May 15th, 19 16; he was 
sending a message to his wife, who was sitting 
with Pamela Glenconner for communication on 
the 25th July, 19 17, at Wilsford Manor, Salis- 
bury. After some time of conversation through 
trance utterances, Feda said : 

u Now here is a Book-Test. It is in this house, 
downstairs. You will find the book near the 
door, with gold lettering on it. It is the tenth 
book in the shelf counting from the door. The 
letter A is prominent. Ar . . . there are two 



36 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

messages for her on the same page ; look on page 
37-" 

In the library downstairs, about midway from 
the floor to the highest shelf, the tenth book 
counting from the door was found to be the poems 
of Matthew Arnold. 1 It is a green volume with 
gold lettering. Turning to page 37 we found 
the sonnet that commences : 

"God knows it, I am with you. . . /' 

and the concluding lines are as follows: 

"If sadness at the long heart-wasting show 
Wherein Earth! s great ones are disquieted. 
If thoughts, not idle, while before me flow 
The armies of the homeless and unfed — 
// these be yours, if this is what you are, 
Then am I yours, and what you feel, I share" 

This was a Book-Test with three points of 
contact; the other two were successfully inter- 
preted, but being of a private character, they are 
not given here. 

Mrs. Piatt had to leave hurriedly to catch a 

1 In the Canterbury Poets Series. Edited by William Sharp. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 37 

train, giving me the notes, with directions. And 
this is how it happened that, at this time, all 
unaware of the importance attached to there being 
a witness to the proceedings, I searched for this 
test and found it, alone; so that as evidence it is 
valueless; but the endorsement of the recipient is 
willingly given. 

"I recognise the source from which this Book- 
Test is drawn, and consider it entirely applicable. 
Especially in the final passages of the message, 
the portions of this Book-Test that I prefer to 
suppress, do I recognise allusions that only he 
who purports to be communicating could have 
known." 4 ,— ^ 



Perhaps it is to the point to remark here that 
Mrs. Leonard was not staying in the house. She 
realises so thoroughly the significance of the 
work that is being done through her, that she 
understands the necessity I am under when I 
record that she was living in another house, visit- 
ing Wilsford only at the hours set aside for sit- 
tings, and leaving immediately these were over. 



CHAPTER II 

Book-Test IV. 

To understand the appositeness of the message 
contained in the following Book-Test, I must tell 
something of the setting, and mention particulars 
relating to the people it concerns. 

Edward Wyndham Tennant, known as Bim, 
the sender of the message, is the eldest of four 
brothers. When he fell in the Battle of the 
Somme in September 191 6, his younger brother, 
David, was fourteen years old. David's adven- 
tures and general plan of life always appealed to 
Bim, who took great pleasure in his childhood. 
Their Mother remembers Bim telling her that 
once in a noisy crowd of children, David, then a 
little boy of six or seven, approached him, and, 
wholly unconcerned by the rabble surrounding 
them, said, "Bim, you know Sirius is a star of the 

first magnitude. " 

38 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 39 

Then he returned to the game. 

David knew a family of friends in the village 
with whom he used to play. When he had fin- 
ished lessons and required their companionship, 
he would signal and shout for them across the 
water meadows, standing on the lawn; and their 
answering shout faint in the distance, and their 
speedy appearance pouring through every hole 
in the hedge, was one of Bim's treasured observa- 
tions. 

David conducted all his pastimes with unex- 
pectedness and potency. The zeal with which he 
pursued his daily avocations was equalled by his 
absorption in the books that were read aloud in 
the evening hours. 

The Mother would tell them stories or read 
to them tales, and she remembers Bim saying to 
her, "All the time that you are reading aloud I 
love to look at David listening, with his large 
dark eyes." 

The bond between these two, the older and 
the little brother, was very strong, and long after 
the two elder boys had gone to school the phrase 
"Mother and Son'" was used by Bim in connec- 
tion with David and his Mother. 



40 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

Station Hotel, 

Crewe, 
October 2$rd, 1917. 

Feda (speaking for Bim through the medium- 
ship of Mrs. Leonard). 

"He says now he is going to send a Book- 
Message for his brother David; he says David 
mustn't think it to be patronising, as if he were 
still quite a little boy. It is, nevertheless, espe- 
cially for David. 

"This is in the house in London, and it is to 
be found in a room downstairs. The page is num- 
ber 14, and the message is three-quarters down 
the page. It is in the eighth book on the third 
shelf counting from right to left. You will find 
something round connected with the book in 
question. 

"Close to it there is a book which tells of great 
spaces — large great spaces" (she raised her 
hands above her head). "It is a book which 
tells of the stars." 

On my return to London I went into the library 
at 34 Queen Anne's Gate, a room on the ground 
floor, unknown to Mrs. Leonard. On the third 
shelf I found the eighth book, counting from right 
to left, to be Lewes' Life of Goethe. 1 Two 

a 4th edition. Smith Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place, 1890. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 41 

books from this was a volume called Astro The- 
ology, or the Demonstration of the Attributes of 
God, from a survey of the Heavens." 1 

On the fourteenth page of the eighth book 
(Lewes' Life of Goethe) we found the following 
passage: 



u One fine afternoon when the house was quiet, 
Master Wolfgang, with his cup in his hand and 
nothing to do, finds himself looking out into 
the silent street, and telegraphing to the young 
Ochsensteins who dwelt opposite. By way of 
doing something he begins to fling the crockery 
into the street, delighted with the noise it makes 
and stimulated by the brothers Ochsenstein, who 
chuckle at him over the way. The indulgent 
Mother returns, and sees the mischief with house- 
wifely horror, till melting into sympathy she 
laughs as heartily as the child. . . . 

"This Mother employed her faculties" (the 
passage continues) i( for story-telling to his and 
her own delight. 'To all natural phenomena,* 
she writes, l I gave a meaning. As we thought of 
the paths which lead from star to star, and that 
we should one day inhabit the stars, and when we 



1 Astro Theology, by W. Derham. 6th edition. Printed for 
W. Innys at the West End of Saint Paul's, MDCCXXXI. 



42 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

thought of the great Spirits we should meet there, 
I was as eager for the hours of story-telling as 
the children themselves. There I sat } and Wolf- 
gang held me with his large black eyes! " 

The passage concludes with the words, 

"What a charming glimpse of Mother and 
Son." 



This Book-Test carried such conviction to the 
members of Bim's family, that when it was found 
and read aloud it was met with the laughter of 
instant recognition. Only one last direction had 
yet to be followed, that which told "of some- 
thing round in connection with this 'book." And 
it was considered discovered when, turning to 
the frontispiece, it was seen that it represented a 
reproduction of a miniature painting set in a 
round black frame. 

To attempt to describe the happy glow in the 
hearts of Bim's family circle when this Book- 
Message was read would be in cold print, im- 
possible. There are, however, moments well 
known to all to which it may be likened: when 
a wished-for letter arrives; when a door swings 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 43 

open and a treasured presence is before one; 
when, in short, he who has been absent is at home 
again. Laughter runs from lip to lip, and eyes 
speak contentment. Such a moment was theirs 
now, they were happy; and it was Bim, as of old, 
who had cheered them. 



We guarantee that the facts of this case are as 
above represented, and we were present at the 
finding of the message. 

(Signed) Glenconner. 

David Tennant. 



Book-Test V. 

Station Hotel, 

Crewe, 
October 23rd, 1917. 

Feda (speaking through Mrs. Leonard for 
Edward Wyndham Tennant). u This is a Book- 
Test, now, for his Mother. It isn't good enough, 



44 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

he says, it is so very ordinary, but it will do as a 
sign that he is sending it. 

"He says you will find it in the same room 
downstairs, as the one to David, in the sixteenth 
book counting from right to left, page 27. 

"The letter S is prominent on the title-page. 
There is a book by Merey — Meri — some name 
like 'Merry' — close by it on the same shelf." 



The book, on searching, proved to be The Life 
of George Washington. 1 On the title-page, Sol- 
dier and Statesman follows the name. On the 
27th page there is an allusion to the family of 
George Washington, six children in all, one dying 
in infancy — which is identical with the family of 
Edward Wyndham Tennant, who purported to 
be giving the Book-Test; and there follows an 
allusion to George Washington's remembrance of 
his Father's fondness: 

"And to his Mother's forming care } >} the pas- 
sage continues, "he ascribed the origin of all to 
which he had attained! 1 

On the same shelf, three books from the one 

a By James Harrison. Heroes of the Nations Series. G. P. 
Putnam & Sons. 1906. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 45 

specified, there was a volume by Merriman, The 
Sowers. 

We bear witness to the truth of the above. 

(Signed) Glenconner, 

David Tennant. 

This room was unknown to Mrs. Leonard. 



CHAPTER III 

Book-Test VI. 

December ijth, 1917. 

Feda (speaking through Mrs. Leonard), after 
some time given to communication through trance 
utterances: 

"Now Bim says he is sending a message; a 
Book-Test for his Mother. He says it is in the 
drawing-room, on the side of the book-shelf near 
the door. You must look in the third shelf, and 
take the fifth book counting from left to right; 
turn to page 83. He says the passage alludes to 
his present life and to what you feel about it. 
He says, 'Tell her that her love for me has 
bridged the gulf, and love has shown the way.' 
He repeats that 'love has shown the way.' " 

On my return home, when I searched among 

the books, I found the fifth book on the third 

shelf counting from left to right was one entitled 

The World We hive In, written by Brackett and 

published by Richard Badger, Boston (The 

Gorham Press, 1909). 

On page 83 I read: 

46 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 47 

"The pathway to the Unseen World 
Is full of hope and joy untold. 
With Love's rich bloom and fragrant air, 
Unselfish deeds and silent prayer. 
Who seeks to climb some other way 
Will tarry long, will go astray, 
For Love alone can point the way." 

Now I turn to my notes again as taken at the 
time. They continue as follows: 

"On the previous page, well, not quite the 
previous page, he says — but turning over the leaf 
before — you will find an allusion to quite a little 
thing you had long ago. Something you used 
to wear; you had it when you were a girl; he 
says you will smile when you find this, but the 
words apply." 

I looked on the 82nd page, and here I found 
an interesting endorsement of the directions given, 
for that page was blank. This, evidently, was 
why Feda was told to say, "not quite the previous 
page, but turning over the leaf before," for on 
the reverse side of the blank page I found five 
lines of print, the concluding paragraph of the 
chapter. The passage reads as follows: 



48 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

"Spiritualism walks hand-in-hand with the 
beauty and simplicity of Christ!* 

Now among the collection of jewellery that was 
mine before I married is a slender golden ring. 
It is a betrothal ring from Normandy, and is 
made in the device of clasped hands. It is a 
triple ring on a tiny pivotal pin, which holds the 
three rings together; it opens by the two hands 
slipping apart, disclosing the design of two hearts 
on the third ring. Bim knew this little object 
well, he knew also that it was mine before I mar- 
ried, and the plan of its fashioning is, truly, 
"hand-in-hand." Until I returned home, how- 
ever, and found the passage that held the allusion, 
I had no idea to what ''little thing" he was re- 
ferring. 

Now I quote once more from my notes. 

Feda. "Fifth book; close to it there is a vol- 
ume of an historical character, not acceptedly 
historical (and do you know, he says, you will be 
interested to learn the spirit of an Egyptian Era 
prevails at this time again? but this is difficult 
to explain clearly now), and on page 103 of the 
fifth book you will find an allusion to an epoch, 
a period in time, rather than to a place." 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 49 

On this page the passage ran as follows : 

"We have a form of worship under the name 
of Christianity that dates hack thousands of years 
before the Christian Era." 

Once more I turn to my notes. 

"A book of an historical character, not ac- 
ceptedly historical, he says." 

Book-Test VII. 

The fifth book, as we have seen, was that by 
Brackett, the one next it I found to be The Story 
of Assenethy the legendary narrative of the wife 
of Joseph. This story is included by Vincent 
Beauvais in his Speculum Historiale, compiled by 
him in the Thirteenth Century, so it agrees well 
with the description "not acceptedly historical," 
and the fact of Bim's sudden and parenthetical 
allusion to Egypt at this point while dealing with 
the Book-Test is of living interest. 

One can see the connection in his own mind, 
with Egypt, and the book that he had chosen. 
He knew the fascination his Mother felt in the 
idea of previous lives lived in ancient Egypt. He 
knew of a dream-story she had once dreamed, 
the scene of which is cast in Egypt ; and he knew, 



50 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

also, of the saying of a friend, who, on being told 
the dream, exclaimed: "That's not an ordinary 
dream, that is a memory, that happened" ; but 
interested though he knew his Mother would be 
in what he could have told her, he put it all into 
a parenthesis, in his own vivid and rapid manner, 
bent on pursuing the chief matter in hand at the 
moment, which was his Book-Test. 

His own sonnet on "Re-Incarnation" shows 
clearly how aware he was himself of the touch of 
the Past. 

"I too remember distant golden days 
When even my soul was young; I see the sand 
Whirl in a blinding pillar towards the band 
Of orange sky-line 'neath a turquoise blaze — 
(Some burnt-out sky spread o'er a glistening land) 
— And slim brown jargoningmen in blue and gold, 
I know it all so well, I understand 
The ecstasy of worship, ages old. 
Hear the first truth: the great far-seeing soul 
Is ever in the humblest husk; I see 
How each succeeding section takes its toll 
In fading cycles of old memory, 
And each new life the next life shall control, 
Until perfection reach Eternity.' , 



CHAPTER IV 

Book-Test VIII. 

Obtained at a sitting held in 34 Queen Anne's 
Gate, London, May 6th, 19 18. 

Feda. "Now, he says, the Book-Tests — he 
has two — both for his Mother, and a third that 
he would like taken as a message to all . . . all 
of them ... (he can't get this through very 
clearly, but he repeats, it is a message for a good 
many people . . . that he knows . . .). 

"The first one is among some books near stairs; 
on the left-hand side of some stairs." 

Now if Feda had said "steps" instead of 
"stairs," we should have understood instantly; as 
it was, we who were listening and taking down 
these notes were entirely bewildered. One of us 
said, "There are no book-shelves on the stairs. 
What can it mean?" 

Feda answered, "Bim says that room that isn't 
used now; you know, with stairs in it." 

Then we recognised my room upstairs that 
51 



52 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

owing to the air-raids had been disused for some 
time ; to enter this room you have to descend three 
steps. A small book-shelf hangs on the wall to 
the left of the entrance. 

"Now then, he says, that you have got the 
room, look for a book in a grey cover, one of the 
books in the row has a bit torn off its back; take 
the second book counting from the left, and look 
on page 29. The words speak of the sacrifice 
and suffering in the War; it speaks of the War. 
Take it very literally, Bim says, or it will not be 
correct." 

The room in question was unknown to Mrs. 
Leonard. 

After the sitting we looked, and found the 
second book on the shelf was one called War 
Poems by X. 1 On page 29 were some verses 
alluding to the wives and mothers in the War. 

"0, don't forget it, 
Mother's son, 
They're soldiers, soldiers, 
Every one. 

1 Martin Seeker, No. 5, John Street, Adelphi, London. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 53 

"Soldiers, loving 

Them that's gone, 
Soldiers, soldiers, 
'Carrying on! 

"Proudest regiment 
Ever known, 
Let us call them 

'The Lord's Own! " 



Three books from this one was a volume with 
the title on a label slightly torn and damaged. 

"Now the other message," Feda continued, 
"for his Mother is in another book, the fourth 
book in the shelf above, look on page 56." 



Book-Test IX. 

And this was what we found when we looked, 
according to these directions: 

"/ think man's great capacity for pain 

Proves his immortal birthright, he ye sure 
No merely human mind could hear the strain 
Of the tremendous sorrow we endure!' 



54 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

"Unless our souls had root in soil divine 

We could not bear Earth's overwhelming 
strife; 
The fiercest pain that wracks this heart of mine 
Convinces me of Everlasting Life." 1 

Now "the message for many" had to be dealt 
with. 

Feda had said: "Bim says look in the first page, 
there are some words on the title-page of one 
of the books he has mentioned; he has let the 
moment pass, and he cannot get power together 
sufficiently to send it through very clearly now . . . 
but it is a message to all, he says." 

Book-Test X. 

We looked on the title-pages of the two books 

he had specified, and in that of the first of the 

two there was a dedication in which the author 

gives his verse to those 

"In the Battalion of which regiment I have many 
friends" 

Bim at this sitting said, through Feda, that he 
wanted to be surely told if any of the messages 

1 Poems of Pleasure, published by W. B. Conkey Company, 
Chicago. 1902. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 55 

in the Book-Tests could not be found, or "came 
out wrong," as she put it, because he knows how 
difficult it is to get things through clearly. 

"He can only get flickers through, " he says, 
"compared to all he would like to send." 

And then he reiterated how happy it makes 
him to talk with us. 

"All your happiness comes back to me," he 
says, "when a Book-Test is made out or we have 
a good sitting like this, and the sense of nearness 
fills me with joy. I send all my love, and bless- 
ings, and constant thoughts. ..." 

There were two other points to this test; but 
the recipient of the messages prefers that they 
shall not be published. 

I guarantee that the directions given and the 
finding of the books were as stated above. 

(Signed) David Tennant. 



Book-Test XL 

Of the many Book-Tests we have received only 
two have failed. One of these was for a brother 



$6 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

officer, and the person who received the message 
was not a member of Bim's family, so possibly 
the channel of communication was not clear. The 
other purported to be sent by two friends of 
Bim's, and the particulars were sent on to me. 
Being in Scotland at the time, I was unable to 
follow the directions, but I asked some one to 
do it for me. They wrote saying their search 
had been unrewarded; and I think the deduction 
may be that Book-Tests to be successfully received 
must be given as directly as possible. It cannot 
be said, however, that it was entirely a failure, 
for I kept the directions, and when I returned to 
London went through part of the matter again. 
On the page numbered 6 to which we were re- 
ferred I found the index of the chapter headings, 
and these read as follows: 

"Triumph. 

u The Dead and hiving meet. . . . The record 
of one of the most wonderful and mysterious ex- 
periences." 

The book in question was She, by Rider 
Haggard. Had I been in London at the time 
the Book-Test was sent me, I think I should have 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 57 

verified the other points as well, but the room 
had been prepared for our arrival, and once the 
passages in the Tests had been looked for without 
success, no further heed had been taken. 



CHAPTER V 

The Book-Test that I will now relate is one 
that to Bim's family carries more conviction of 
the identity of the sender of the message than 
any other among the rich collection that is theirs ; 
but truly to recognise its pertinence I must inter- 
rupt the sequence by telling again something of 
Bim's family life. 

In pre-war days, Forestry was his Father's 
chief interest. To educate himself more thor- 
oughly in this, he went in the year 1901 to Ger- 
many, to see the forests there grown under Gov- 
ernmental supervision, and though he did not 
import to his Scottish home the drastic regularity 
and monotonous severity of the German system, 
the plantations and woods at Glen are ordered 
in consequence more carefully and intelligently 
than the woodlands of most estates in Britain. 

His eye became trained to a higher state of 
perfection possible to growing trees than is the 

58 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 59 

case in most people, for often during walks 
through the fragrant fir woods, when expressions 
of admiration or delight in the lovely scenery 
arose, how constantly would the depressing ver- 
dict be uttered by the Master of the Trees, that 
the young shoots were being ruined by "the 
beetle.' 4 

"You see all those quirks — those sudden bends 
in the new growth? Those show the beetle has 
got at them. You wouldn't see the damage to 
the young trees as I do; it's the greatest pest 
we have to deal with . . ." and much more of 
the like in conversation. So familiar was the 
theme to the family that Bim has been known to 
say to his Mother, sotto voce, "See if we get 
through this wood without hearing about the 
beetle." If his Father was unduly pessimistic 
about something Bim would say, "All the woods 
have got the beetle." 

Light words to look back upon, these! foam 
on a Summer Sea; hardly, you will say worth 
gathering; and indeed in the first bitter months 
of bereavement little remembered. 

Yet it was Bim himself who was to recall them. 



6o THE EARTHEN VESSEL 



Book-Test XII. 

December 17th, 1917. 

Feda. "Bim now wants to send a message to 
his Father. This book is particularly for his 
Father; underline that, he says. It is the ninth 
book on the third shelf counting from left to right 
in the bookcase on the right of the door in the 
drawing-room, as you enter; take the title, and 
look at page 37." 

We found the ninth book in the shelf indicated 
was: Trees. 1 

And on page 36, quite at the bottom and lead- 
ing on to page 37, we read: 

"Sometimes you will see curious marks in the 
wood; these are caused by a tunnelling beetle, 
very injurious to the trees. . . ." 

(Signatures of two testificators to the finding 
and verifying of this Book-Message.) 

Glenconner, 
David Tennant. 

1 Trees, by J. Harvey Kelman. In the "Shown to the 
Children" series; published by Jack. Edinburgh. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 61 

Had a chance observer been present when we 
traced this Test, "This is no mourning family," 
he would have said: "these are happy people." 

And he would have been right. 



CHAPTER VI 

Book-Test XIII. 

March 2nd, 191 8. 

Feda speaking. "This is a message for Bim's 
Father. It is not in the room Bim generally 
takes his Book-Tests from. This is in his 
Father's room, third shelf from the bottom in the 
further corner of the room; take out the ninth 
book counting from left to right, and look on 
page 6$. About half-way down the page, as near 
as he can rightly judge, you will find the message. 
He says "he knows all that his Father feels, he 
knows how much he loves him." This message 
will be what he wants his Father to say when he 
remembers him and thinks of his passing over." 

The book proved to be The Dark Night of the 
Soul, by Juan de la Cruz, and the passage ends 
as follows: 

"May God be pleased to give me His Divine 

Light, since it is indeed needed in so dark a night, 

and in so difficult a matter." 

62 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 63 

"Close to this book," Feda continued, "within 
a span's length of it, is one whose title suggests 
the path that Bim has trodden since he passed 



on." 



"What is a span's length?" we asked. 

Feda answered, "The Society 1 says a span's 
length is the length of your hand when it is ex- 
tended. Put your thumb on the book first men- 
tioned, and then in any direction that your hand 
turns, up or down, or on either side, the right 
book may be found." 

Book-Test XIV. 

Measuring the distance specified from the ninth 
book already mentioned, we found The Valley of 
Decision, by Edith Wharton ; and it is interesting 
to note that the matter of this novel is divided 
under several sub-titles, many of which appear 
applicable to the path Bim trod: 

"Multitudes, Multitudes in the Valley of De- 
cision/ 9 

"A Gift from the Grave." 

"The Old Order and the New Light." 

*Mrs. Leonard was at this time working for the Society for 
Psychical Research, so it was to this Society Feda presumably 
alluded. 



64 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

"The Choice and the Reward" 
"Upon New Banks there Floods a Newer 
Day." 

Feda continued: 

"All these are quite near the ninth book. Now 
take out the fifth book, Bim says, from left to 
right, and look at page 16, and find a message 
for his Mother. Quite near the top of the page. 
Something he is trying very hard to do for her, 
and with her" 



Book-Test XV. 

This book, the fifth in the shelf counting from 
left to right, we found to be an autobiography 
by Agnes Weston, 1 and on the top of the 16th 
page these words occur: 

"To make the children happy, and my 
Mother. . . ." 

I was present when these Book-Tests were 
verified. 

(Signed) Glenconner. 

1 My Life among the Blue-jackets (James Nisbet, 1912). 



CHAPTER VII 

Book-Test XVL 

While we were receiving communication in 
this particular form, our happiness would not 
have been so great had we been the only people 
that were receiving such testimony. Others, 
many others, beside ourselves were having Book- 
Tests given them during their sittings with Mrs. 
Leonard, and this chapter shall be dedicated to 
three received by Mrs. Beadon, living at n 
Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, through whose kindness I 
am allowed to include them here. 

She writes : 

"Thank you so very much for letting me see 
these records. How glad they must be when we 
pick up the message correctly! Your son seems 
to be helping so many, and it is natural that it 
should be so, seeing you are helping so many on 
this side along the same lines of comfort; and 
he must feel he is working with you. 

" I hope he knows how grateful we are to you 
both! 

65 



66 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

"Here is a test I received last week, through 
Feda; your Son was helping in it. I was told 
to find page 39 in a certain book, the position 
and number of which was carefully described to 
me. I was told that on it was a message for me 
when I get depressed. 'Say it over to yourself,' 
I was told, 'when you feel miserable. ' 

" I found on looking that the volume was your 
book of poems, W 'Indies tr aw, 1 and on page 39 
there occurs the one verse alone: 



" Yet Love endures, for all Death's sombre will 
Read — should you doubt it — in these chosen 
pages, 

Here shall you joy to find these lovers still 

Singing their love-songs to us, down the Ages!' 



" Mrs. Leonard has never been to our house, 
nor does she know my books, or where I keep 
them. 

" It was beautiful to find such a verse,'- the 
letter continues. " My husband did not often 
read poetry; his reading was along lines that 



1 A book of verse by Pamela Glenconner, published by the 
Chiswick Press. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 67 

would not help much to find an expressive mes- 
sage. It seemed to me true that your son was 
helping, as he has so often, and it was so natural 
for him to use your words." 

Yours sincerely* 
J. E. Beadon. 



Book-Test XVII. 

Sept. 2()th ) 19 17. — Another Book-Test ob- 
tained at a sitting with Mrs. Leonard. The com- 
munication purporting to be from Colonel 
Beadon, received by his wife, J. E. Beadon, 11 
Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 

"In a square room, books in the corner, a row 
of books running by the wall, to the corner from 
the window. Take the fifth book, counting from 
right to left, page 71 or 17. (Both numbers w T ere 
repeated several times.) Yes — 71. 

"The message will not be as beautiful as he 
would like a message to you from him to be, but 
you will understand this is to make the test as 
good as he can." 



68 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

This was a Book-Test with seven points of 
contact. Of these six have been traced and found 
apposite. 

The directions continue as follows: 
( i ) It refers to a past condition. 

(2) It has an application to the present. 

( 3 ) It is in answer to a thought much in your 
mind at one time. This thought is not with 
you now, especially since you have known Feda. 

(4) On the opposite page is a reference to fire. 

(5) On the opposite page is a reference to 
light. 

(6) On the opposite page there is a reference 
to olden times. (All these have nothing to do 
with the message, you understand, but are given 
in order that you may be sure you have the right 
page.) 

(7) On the same page, or is it the opposite 
page? an important word beginning with S. 

Now in order to make the application of the 
above directions evident, Mrs. Beadon allows me 
to give the following particulars : 

William Beadon was killed in action in Meso- 
potamia. His body was buried by the Chaplain 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 69 

and officers the same night of his death, where 
he fell. The officer in charge wrote that all 
traces of the grave had been carefully obliterated 
to avoid desecration by the Arabs, and its locality 
is now unknown. 

In the room, and on the shelf indicated, Mrs. 
Beadon found that the fifth book counting from 
right to left was a volume of poems by Oliver 
Wendell Holmes. 

On page 71 she read in "The Pilgrim's Vision" : 

11 The weary pilgrim slumbers , 

His resting-place unknown; 
His hands were crossed, his lids were closed, 

The dust was o } er him strown. 
The drifting soil, the mouldering leaf 

Along the sod were blown; 
His mould had melted into Earth, 

His memory lives alone" 

Now let us take the directions as they are given. 

( 1 ) It refers to a past condition. 

This poem, "The Pilgrim's Vision," refers to 
early days in America. 

(2) It has an application to the present. 

The application is to the communicator's own 



70 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

case, i. e. } "his body received reverent burial and 
the resting-place is unknown." And — 

(3) It is an answer to a thought much in your 
mind at one time t that is not there now, especially 
since you have known Feda. 



Mrs. Beadon writes: "It was a question con- 
stantly in my mind in early days after the news 
reached me, as to whether it would be possible 
to identify the spot, with the help of the officers 
who had been present at the burial, and when 
the War should be over, to mark the place with 
a cross. I have thought very little of this lately 
nor have I felt in the least concerned about it." * 

Let us return now to the further directions, as 
given by Feda at the sitting. 

(4) On the opposite page there is a reference 
to fire. 

(5) Also a reference to light. 



1 Spiritualists are happy, you will notice, in this respect of 
graves. They do not trouble about them over-much, nor do 
they cherish them. You do not hear them say, "So-and-so 
was buried at Guillemont," or "He was buried where he fell." 
They speak of the body being buried, not the person. The 
Critos of the present day still confound Socrates with his 
corpse. See Appendix I. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 71 

Mrs. Beadon found the following verse on the 
page opposite: 

"Still shall the fiery pillar's ray 
Along thy pathway shine } 
To light the chosen tribe that sought 
This Western Palestine" 

(6) There is a reference to olden times. 
This passage, giving reference to fire, light 

and the journey of the Israelites, fulfils the direc- 
tions numbered 4, 5 and 6. 

(7) This last point — "the important word be- 
ginning with S" — is the only reference in this test 
that cannot be traced. 

Now Mrs. Beadon turned to page 17 (the 
other number in pagination given by Feda), and 
she read: 

" The Indian's shaft, the Briton's hall, 
The sabre's thirsting edge, 
The hot shell shattering in its fall 
The bay one tfs bending wedge, 
Here scattered Death; yet seek the spot 

No trace thine eye can see, 
No altar — and they need it not, 
Who leave their children free," 



72 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

This stanza fulfils once more number 3 of the 
directions given, and an interesting light is thrown 
on Feda's hesitation between these two numbers, 
71 and 17, both holding as they do the same 
application. 

"It is notable," writes Mrs. Beadon, "that 
nowhere else in the volume can I find any refer- 
ence which would at all fulfil the conditions of 
the message." 

"I guarantee that the above narration of the 
facts is correct." 

(Signed) J. E. Beadon. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Book-Test XVIII. 

I have been given permission to include the 
following Book-Test, if the names of those re- 
ceiving it are suppressed. 

The boy concerned in it was at Winchester 
with Bim. 

In a sitting with Mrs. Leonard, Feda told her 
sitter that the boys were "putting this message 
through together." She said: 

u Bim is with * * *, helping him with this 
Test." 

Directions for the finding of the book were 
given in the usual way, first as to the room, 
then the book-shelf, then the number of the 
book in the shelf, and lastly the page, followed 
by the words which tell the gist of the message, 
or its application; but although this procedure 
was as usual meticulously observed, the boy's 
Mother failed to find anything that tallied with 
the directions given. 

73 



74 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

I was in Scotland at the time, and she wrote 
to me saying she hoped I would go and see her 
when I returned to London, as perhaps I might 
have better results. 

I did so, and she gave me the notes taken at 
the time of the sitting. The directions were as 
follows : 



"Books in a sitting-room, towards the corner 
of the room; books in a shelf running towards 
a window, books about waist high. . . . (No — 
he says I must be careful — about three and a 
half feet high.) Count left to right, and take 
out the fifth book, and look on page 71 or 17. 
The message is from * * * to his Mother, and 
touches on the difference in his life now to what 
it was before. One part deals with foreign coun- 
tries, and one part of the book treats of circles. " 
(Feda here caused Mrs. Leonard to describe cir- 
cles with her finger in the air.) "Yes — circles. 
It mentions things circular." 



It occurred to me at this point that as we had 
no success in finding anything approaching the 
directions given in the boy's Mother's house, that 
possibly it might be found in our own house, at 
34 Queen Anne's Gate, seeing that she had been 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 75 

told the two boys were working at this together. 

So I made a search at home, taking with me 
at her request, the notes of direction. 

The library at 34 Queen Anne's Gate is not 
a square room — it is oblong, but with a slightly 
bowed window. The books are in the shelves 
running between the fireplace towards the window. 
I took the fifth book out, counting from left to 
right, from one of the dividing partitions nearest 
the window. It was The Mysticism of Colour, by 
Finetta Bruce, published by Ryder, 164 Aldgate 
Street, London. 

I looked on page 17, and read: 

"The two sides are as dependent one on the 
other for their existence as a coin is to its reverse 
and obverse. . . . What should we think of the 
man who fancied unreal any person, place or ob- 
ject which he could not actually see? . . . We 
often show ourselves to be very young children 
when we treat the Invisible as non-existent, be- 
cause at this stage of our evolution it is hidden 
from our sight." 

Turning to the notes I saw "one part of the 
book treats of foreign countries," and I found 



76 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

that an early chapter in the volume tells of Mexico 
and of Egypt, describing the means used to convey 
messages to a distance, and the primitive methods 
used in ancient Egypt for the same purpose. 

Looking now for the circles I turned to page 71, 
and found that from that page on to page 75 the 
writer treats of the arch or curved line of the 
rainbow, which if completed must form a circle, 
and the words occur: 

"Though only half of the whole is seen by us, 
the other half must exist" 

and drawn on the page is the diagram of a circle, 
and yet another is shown on the following page. 

This Book-Message was obtained in November 
19 1 7, and my husband was present in the library 
when I traced it, following the directions given. 



"I bear witness that the facts as stated above 

Glenconner. 



are correct." 



PART II 
THE DRAYTON THOMAS SERIES 



"Greet the Unseen with a cheer." 



CHAPTER IX 

Book-Test XIX. 

During the winter of 19 17 and the early 
spring months we had received so many messages 
and so much consolation by my sittings with Mrs. 
Leonard, that it occurred to me that I should 
give up for a while having any sittings, and leave 
the time for others, more lately bereaved. At 
this time if anyone hoped to make an appoint- 
ment, it was not before three months or so that 
he could get a sitting arranged, so besieged was 
this medium by clients, so wide was the field of 
her work. I had sat for three months in the in- 
terests of the S.P.R., for our communications 
had been of so evidential a nature that the Com- 
mittee, on taking over the services of Mrs. Leon- 
ard, had asked me to be one of those sitters she 
was allowed to receive. 

For three months Mrs. Leonard was the sal- 
aried servant of the Society, who wished to inves- 

79 



80 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

tigate her remarkable powers of mediumship. She 
was permitted to receive only such sitters as the 
Society sent, and these were, with few exceptions, 
anonymous to her. A representative of the So- 
ciety invariably accompanied these sitters, in order 
to take notes. My sittings were during the months 
of January, February and March; after that I 
desisted, for the reason given above. During the 
following months, however, while I was away in 
the country, Bim managed to get several Book- 
Messages through to us by means of another sit- 
ter, then a stranger to us. This was the Rev. 
Charles Drayton Thomas, of South Hill Lodge, 
Bromley, Kent, who was having a series of sittings 
with Mrs. Leonard, receiving remarkable testi- 
mony to the truth of continuity beyond the grave. 
He will publish the results before long he tells 
me, but these particular Book-Tests in which Bim 
participated, he generously gives wholly to us to 
include in our collection. In our consideration 
they are valuable, coming as they did through one 
unknown to us, and although in some of these 
tests there were one or two points that we failed 
to trace, in the main drift or central message of 
each they did most convincingly apply. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 81 

The first of this series is interesting in the fact 
that it was linked with a dream of mine. I know 
that in telling this I run the risk of losing the 
sympathy of many readers. To some people it 
is sufficient to mention an interest in dreams, and 
they quickly estimate you as a lunatic; a mild one 
possibly, but still a lunatic. Nevertheless, I shall 
finish my story, remembering in all humility that 
this path has been trodden before. 

Since childhood I have had a faculty of dream- 
ing coherently. I know what Stevenson means 
when he writes of the Brownies giving him themes 
for his pen. Most of us in varying degrees have 
some outlook upon another world, and dreaming 
is as good a window as any other. 

I have had a series of dreams in which Bim is 
with me; on waking I remember his words, and 
I have so great a feeling of happiness and exhila- 
ration next day that I fully believe these dreams 
are interviews. 

In this particular dream, towards the end of 
May in 191 8, he spoke of the memoirs of his 
own life, a book on which I was then engaged. 
It was to me a difficult task, a labour of love more 
piercing than any one can fathom : every day was 



82 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

the sword turned in the wound. Yet it had to be 
done, for treasure must not be hidden. One thing 
sorrow has shown to me, all that I have of good 
in this way must be shared. 

Well, in this dream Bim and I talked together. 
He took the proofs in his hand, and I told him 
how hard I found it, how I struggled to write, 
and how clumsy I felt, and helpless. Writing it 
was like bearing him over again, a moral parturi- 
tion. Child-birth is painless, I said, compared to 
writing memoirs of one you love. 

He said: "But you have no idea how it helps 
me to be with you. There is only one thing! 
You are praising me too much." 

I said in reply to him, "Yes, that has occurred 
to me, and I have been wondering if I am capable 
of drawing a true portrait. Yet I say to myself, 
no one would ask me to sit down and count over 
your faults. I must write as I know you, and draw 
you as you are seen by me." 

I saw the happiness in his face; but he said 
again remonstratingly, "Nevertheless, you are 
giving me too much praise; it is all praise of 
me!" 

And I replied in my dream: 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 83 

"But look at the text I have taken as the motto 
for the book: 

"There are those that have left a name behind 
them 
That their praises might be reported!' 

And in my dream I embraced him, saying: 
"This book is to report your praise." 
Then I awoke. 

Now to make clear the application of the fol- 
lowing message, I must here record that this text 
that I had taken for the motto of the Memoir 
is from Ecclesiasticus, Chapter xliv. 

On July 2nd I received a letter from Mr. Dray- 
ton Thomas. He was then unknown to me. He 
wrote that he was having a series of sittings with 
Mrs. Leonard, and that his excuse for introducing 
himself must be that he had twice been asked by 
some one purporting to be my son to write to me 
and send on a message. This message, he had 
been told, would be in a Book-Test, and the di- 
rections to find the same were dictated. The 
volume would be found among his own books in 



84 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

his library, and finally, with many messages of 
love, he had been commissioned to say: "Tell 
her she will understand the reference. " 

"I have looked out the test," the letter con- 
tinued. "Needless to say, the reference has no 
application to myself. I hope it may mean some- 
thing to you. May I ask you to write and tell me 
if you find in it any application?" 

Mr. Drayton Thomas had looked among his 
books following the directions given, and on the 
appointed page, in the volume specified, he found 
a treatise on Ecclesiasticus, mentioning the forty- 
fourth chapter. 



CHAPTER X 

Apart from the central application, the fore- 
going Book-Test has other aspects that are inter- 
esting. The chapter from which the text was 
taken (Chapter xliv.) was well known to Bim 
from the opening lines: 

"Let us now praise famous men 
And our Fathers that begat us/' 

to the end. I remember a conversation with him 
about it, in which he said: "I set this at the very 
head of English prose." He had, moreover, his 
own humorous application of verse 6, and would 
say that it belonged particularly to his Father. 
I recall an occasion when the family were all about 
to start one Sunday for Kirk. Bim was asked 
to go and see if his Father was ready, and he re- 
turned saying: "He has no intention of going to 
Kirk to-day. He is seated in his library, furnished 
with ability, living peaceably in his habitation." 

85 



86 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

During this spring of 191 8, when we were hav- 
ing no sittings with Mrs. Leonard, I remember 
saying, "He will get a message to us in some form 
or other." And as his birthday approached, we 
often spoke of him, and I felt confident he would 
give us some sign of his presence ; so when I had 
the dream of which I have written, I felt that it 
sufficed, and was content. But now listen to this: 
Mr. Drayton Thomas tells us that he was twice 
asked at his sittings with Mrs. Leonard to write 
to us, and that it was only his being a stranger 
that had deterred him from doing so. He posted 
the letter when the request was repeated with in- 
sistence. We received it on the day following 
Bim's birthday — the 2nd July. 

Now apart from the message, is it fanciful to 
see an allusion in the opening verse to a day of 
nativity? 



CHAPTER XI 

Book-Test XX. 

I now turn to Mr. Drayton Thomas' letters, 
in case my reader may desire them in corrobora- 
tion of the facts. 

He wrote as follows: 

South Hill Lodge, 

Bromley, 

Kent. 

Dear Lady Glenconner, 

As you are familiar with Mrs. Leonard 
and the nature of her sittings, I may dispense 
with explanations otherwise necessary. Feda has 
expressed a wish that I should verify by referring 
to you the directions given by the Book-Test. 

If you do not happen 

to have the volume I shall be pleased to leave 
a copy at your house. It is Vol. II. of the 
Encyclopedia Biblica, edited by Profs. Cheyne 
and Black, published by Black & Adam in 1901. 
The page indicated by Feda for the test seems 
to be 1 177, and deals with Ecclesiasticus. 
Out of the four further refer- 
ences to this book three have been accurate. I 

87 



88 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

should be greatly interested if you can find time 
to let me hear your opinion. Feda gives the 
number 21, and you will find the matter of the 
book is given under numbered paragraphs. 

Very faithfully yours, 
C. Drayton Thomas. 



I replied; and Mr. Drayton Thomas wrote as 
follows : 

". . . I am deeply interested in your letter 
following my enquiry, and herewith comes the 
volume in question. Feda says: 'The whole 
book has something to do with them, it is linked 
up with them in some way,' so I am leaving the 
volume at your house to-day, after the Lecture, 
that you may inspect the passages at your leisure. 
"Very faithfully yours, 
"C. Drayton Thomas." 



He left the volume, as he promised, on the 
hall table at 34 Queen Anne's Gate, on the eve- 
ning of July 4th. The Lecture that had taken 
place on that particular date was a paper on 
"Symbolism" which I had been preparing some 
weeks previously. This I had read aloud to an 
audience in the picture-gallery at 34, and when 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 89 

the last among the company had left the house, 
I went downstairs to the library. 

In passing through the hall I saw the book of 
which Mr. Drayton Thomas had written. Eagerly 
I took it with me to turn to the passages myself, 
to see if any further allusion became apparent. 
I had no number of the page to guide me, as 
Feda's words had been more vague than usual 
in this respect, so I opened the volume at random, 
looking at the first pages of the book, and there 
I found a list of words in which no less than 
eight of the symbols were enumerated, which 
figure in the paper that I had just read to an 
audience in the Gallery: Eagle } Easter f East, 
West, North, South, Death and Interpretation. 

We felt that in this test Bim could not have 
given more convincing evidence of his being aware 
of our doings and occupations. These particular 
Book-Tests were given to Mr. Drayton Thomas 
on the 30th May, synchronising exactly with the 
time that I was reading a book on Symbolism, 
and doing research work in this line of thought; 
a fact of which he and Mrs. Leonard were in 
ignorance. 



CHAPTER XII 

Book-Test XXL 

This is an extract from Mr. Drayton Thomas' 
letter written on the 24th August, 19 18, and re- 
ceived by me at Glen, in Peeblesshire, Scotland. 

Bromley, 

Kent. 

"I was pleasantly surprised to receive the en- 
closed message for you at my sitting yesterday. 
Needless to say, I know nothing of the facts herein 
stated, and I shall be glad to hear if it proves in- 
telligible to you. 

"Yours sincerely, 
"C. Drayton Thomas. " 

(From a sitting of the Rev. C. Drayton Thomas 
held with Mrs. Leonard on the 23rd August at 
Datchet.) 

Feda. u Bim was pleased about the message 
he got through in July — it was near a birthday, 
and the test referred also to studies in which they 

90 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 91 

had just been engaged. It helped his Father very 
much, and he is very pleased about it. Now here 
is another for them, this time in Scotland. The 
room is upon what one can only call the ground 
floor, and it is on the right, and not quite square.'' 



(This is interesting, as there are no family liv- 
ing-rooms at Glen strictly on the ground floor, all 
the rooms are on a floor nine steps up out of the 
front hall, the servants' rooms being ten steps 
down from it, on the north side, into a basement.) 

Feda continues: 

"As you enter the room, the books are on the 
wall to the right, a height from three to three 
and a half feet from the ground. 

"Tell them to take the fourth volume from the 
left and open it at page 74. There is a passage 
there that Bim chooses to send as a message from 
him." 



These directions being followed, entering the 
room by the drawing-room, 1 - (for there are two 



a This room has since been considerably altered. When the 
Book-Test was given there was only one glazed cupboard with 
books in it, to the right as you enter from the drawing-room, 



92 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

doors) the volume selected proved to be Walton 1 s 
Livet, and page 74 held the following passage, 
referring to the life of Doctor Donne: 

"The next thing is that he went usually once a 
year, if not oftener to the beloved Octon (his 
home), where he would say he found both the 
cure for all cares, by the company which he called 
( the living furniture 7 of the place, and a restora- 
tive by the naturalness of that which he called 
his genial (native) air. . . . The summer before 
his death he changed for a journey to Winchester 
College, to which school he had been sent, 1 and 
'I find this time/ he wrote, 'that at my now being 
in that very place where I sat when I was a boy, 
I was (am?) occasioned to remember those very 
thoughts of my youth which possessed me. . . /' 

The passage continues: 

"When his better part, that part which cannot 

which, containing valuable books, was always kept locked. 
These were the only volumes in the room except a small book- 
case standing on the floor that contained a few old disused 
lesson books. There are now two other large glazed cup- 
boards recessed in the wall, so the directions given in the 
Book-Test no longer apply. 

1 Edward Wyndham Tennant was at school at Winchester. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 93 

die, put off mortality, with as much content and 
cheerfulness as human frailty is capable of, the 
circle of his life was completed; he, dying in a 
manner worthy of his name and family, worthy of 
the trust committed to him, for the service of his 
Prince and of his Country." 



It is here I must draw attention to a clear 
light that would be observable only to Bim's fam- 
ily. It lies in the phrase, li the living furniture of 
the place" This was one of Bim's terms, "furni- 
ture"; and he would use it for people; it was one 
of his words. 

A glance at the paper giving instructions sent 
to us by Mr. Drayton Thomas, showed us that 
a further point of contact was yet to be found: 

"Bim says, now at the beginning of this book 
on the first page, there is a message for his 
Mother." 

All this time I had been engaged in preparing 
the Memoir of my son (which has been published 
since at the Bodley Head) ; and I think it was 
to this he was referring, and to the constant com- 



94 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

munication I have held with him since he died. 
At least to us the application appeared instant 
when we looked on the first page and read : 

"It was a work worthy undertaking, for be- 
twixt the two there was so mutual a knowledge 
and such friendship, contracted in his youth, as 
nothing but Death could force a separation; and 
though their bodies were divided, their affections 
were not, for Love followed the friends' fame be- 
yond Death, and the forgetful grave" 



"I have heard Divines say," the passage con- 
tinues, "that those virtues that were but sparks 
upon Earth, became great and glorious flames in 
Heaven." 



CHAPTER XIII 

Book-Test XXII. 

While we were at Glen that autumn, Bim 
sent a message to his brothers, again through the 
kind agency of Mr. Drayton Thomas. 

"First," Feda said, "he wants to assure them 
that he takes an interest in all they do, that he 
knows all about their movements, that he can 
be with them in all that they are doing. He 
wants you to look for this message in the same 
room, the same shelf as the other message was 
found in, only at the extreme right of the shelf. 
The last book in the row, page 8." 

We looked as directed, and the last book in 
the row, the one touching the wall, was A-hUurs 
and Endurances, by Nichols. 1 On page 8 there is 
a poem entitled "Farewell to Place of Comfort," 
in which, choosing those that appeared applicable, 
the following lines occur : 

^hatto and Windus, MCMXVIL, London. 
95 



96 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

"They shall not say I went with heavy heart; 
I love them all, but now I must depart 
As one who goes to try a Mystery. . . . 

"And now tears are not mine; I have release 

From all the former and the later pain; 
Like the mid-sea, I rock in boundless peace 
Soothed by the charity of the deep sea 
rain. ..." 

and then follow some lines that vividly portray 
the immediate scenery of "his home, the beloved 
Octon," Glen, in Peeblesshire: 

"0 bronzen pines, evenings of gold and blue, 
Steep mellow slope, brimmed twilit pools below, 
Hushed trees, still vale dissolving in the 
dew. . . ." 

We have been happy. . ... 

Happy now, I go" 



CHAPTER XIV 

At the close of the sitting from which were 
derived these beautiful messages, Mr. Drayton 
Thomas asked if Bim were present, giving them 
himself? 

Feda replied: "He isn't here now; he was 
here while I was giving you his directions, and 
he sent his very best thanks to you for taking 
his messages. He is so particularly glad, be- 
cause these Book-Tests have especially helped his 
Father." 

At this point I will give the endorsement of the 
witness, which I held over from the close of the 
previous chapter. 

"I bear witness to the truth of the foregoing 
narration; I was present at the search for the 
books. Their place on the shelf, and the numbers 
on the pages on which the messages were found, 
accord precisely with the directions given." 

(Signed) Glenconner. 

97 



CHAPTER XV 

During the winter months of the year 191 8 
I was 

"Still nursing the unconquerable hope, 
Still clutching the inviolable shade," 

investigating along other lines of spiritualistic 
activity, and obtaining quite as remarkable testi- 
mony in these directions as I have received in the 
foregoing Book-Tests. This however would fill 
a volume by itself, and I am not going to include 
it here, tempted as I am to do so by the interest 
of showing how in this direction also the dream- 
interviews were fulfilled. 

Some day the complete nature of sleep will be 
recognised, and it will be found to be not only 
a provision of nature designed to rest the body, 
but primarily a way of escape for the soul. All 
mortals drink at this clear spring and are refreshed 
by it, but only some remember on waking. And 
what is the nature of the draught? An under- 
standing of the reason of suffering, comprehension 

98 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 99 

of Divine Law, and reunion with those we call 
the Dead. Consolation. 

This is the reason why there is no separation 
for the risen. Those who have died are not sep- 
arated from us as we are from them. There is 
no bereavement in Paradise, and this is because 
sleep is a psychic condition, and they can reach 
us then; but we have not trained ourselves to 
bring back the memory. 

There are many instances, among the poets and 
the saints, of inspiration obtained during the still 
hours of sleep. 

One of the most beautiful of the hymns written 
by Cowper was obtained in this way. He writes 
in one of his incomparable letters: 

"I began to compose lines yesterday morning 
before daybreak, but fell asleep at the end of the 
first two verses. When I wakened again, the 
third and fourth were whispered to my heart in 
a way which I have often experienced." 

And Vaughan writes : 
"And as the angels in some brighter dreams 
Speak to the soul of man while he doth sleep, 
So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted 
themes 
And into glory peep." 



ioo THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

If this thought is pursued it will be seen that 
with the particular flavour of the personality, the 
character of the spiritual intercourse will accord. 
Cowper, a gentle suffering soul, as blameless as 
a flower and aspiring ceaselessly to the sublime, 
will in these hours receive the benefit arising from 
the expression of a poignant contrition, with all 
its renovating and sustaining joy. 

Vaughan "communes with angels," receiving 
those strange thoughts that so "transcend his 
wonted themes" as to cause him to cry: 

"O Father of Eternal Life and all 
Created glories under Thee, 
Resume Thy Spirit from this world of thrall 
Into true liberty." 

And Coleridge built stately pleasure domes and 
heard dulcimers, and drank the milk of Paradise. 
So each goes to his own place in sleep, as in death, 
for the one is but the likeness of the other, provid- 
ing identically, release. 

Sleep and Death, the Twin Brothers, bore 
away the form of the god-like Sarpedon. 

"I wish," said my Uncle Toby, "I wish I were 
asleep" It was his sole and sufficient comment 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 101 

on hearing the heart-racking story of Lefevre. 
The exclamation of one seeking escape from pain. 
A way out. 

And this gate opens nightly, for the weary and 
the sorrowful. Perhaps the words in the Bible 
should read : 

"God giveth to His beloved in sleep. " 

"His beloved" being the soul of man. 1 

After the first week that I knew my loss in 
19 1 6, three times I saw Bim, once with my wak- 
ing eyes — with the mud of the battlefield still 
upon his uniform — but of this I will not write — 
and after that a series of dreams took me to him. 
It was as if I were away with him, and invariably 
happy. These dreams left an abiding impression 
on waking, rather than one of remembered words. 
I walked with him, I held his arm, he bent to- 
wards me talking eagerly in just his own way; or 

1 "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come with Me." This 
is not the Saviour speaking to a Church (has He other temple 
than the human heart?), nor is it plainly an Oriental love-song. 
It is the voice of Christ speaking to Man's soul. 



102 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

we would be sitting together in an atmosphere 
of infinite content and leisure. 

So great was the sense of consolation after one 
of these dreams, that the fact of his having died 
would on waking seem almost negligible ; for hours 
after I was lapped in a sustaining sense of joy. 

But these dreams are again different in nature 
to the story-dreams. Some day I must collect 
them all. 

Shortly before Christmas in the year 19 17 Bim 
told me through Feda I was going to have some 
help in a way she could not explain. u Some 
pleasant happening." He added: "it would be at 
Glen." 

On the night of December 27, I had an en- 
lightening and interesting dream, and on my re- 
turn to London in January, Bim made to it, 
through Feda, a recognisable allusion. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Book-Test XXIII. 
After some winter months in London, we were 
once again at Wilsford in May 1919; but before 
leaving London, I had a sitting with Mrs. Leon- 
ard, at one point in which Bim spoke particularly 
of the Memoir of his life that I was then engaged 
upon, showing clear knowledge of the stage I 
had reached in my work. One point appealed 
to me as being especially characteristic. I quote 
from my notes taken at the time of the sitting, 
February 28th. 

Feda said: "There is something he would like 
to say about another man; he is a little puzzled 
at this. Somehow he gives me the impression of 
two men. I don't know what they have to do 
with it — but it is as if they each might have to 
do with it, and have you given it to the one he 
didn't know? Because there was one man he 
knew, he says, in some way, and he thought you 
would have given it to him. Some one who was 

103 



io 4 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

so friendly; at least Bim says he felt friendly 
towards him, although — funny thing — he'd never 
seen him, he says. Still he goes on saying he 
thought you would have given the book to him." 

Now to understand this, I must explain Mr. 
Blackwell of Oxford had published Bim's book of 
verse, Worple Flit, and a series of letters had 
passed between the two over this little volume; 
letters of an unusual nature in such a connection. 
Like all that Bim set his hand to, they are vivid, 
cordial, personal, and wholly removed from the 
dusty line of business, first, because of Bim's warm 
heart, and secondly, because of the intense de- 
light and enjoyment he derived from the prepara- 
tion of this little book. (He revised the proof- 
sheets on the eve of the Battle of the Somme, 
and one of his letters tells of having read some 
of his poetry to his friends among the officers 
of the Battalion, and of the pleasure he had re- 
ceived because of their approval.) He wrote of 
the interest Mr. Blackwell was showing in his 
poems, and constantly, as the letters that I have 
by me show, he asked his opinion in matters to 
do with the production of the book. 

Now knowing all this, it seems to me entirely 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 105 

fitting and characteristic that Bim should be sur- 
prised at the MS. of the Memoir having been 
given to Mr. John Lane for publication. 

This is a very good instance of the profit and 
convenience that is derived from spirit communi- 
cation, apart from the healing source of consola- 
tion it may be. Little things can be set right, 
slight perplexities removed, and the trifling give 
and take, and the ripple and flow in the familiar 
current of home-life, may be maintained and con- 
tinued. 

I said to Feda in reply: "I understand; tell 
him I would have offered the book to his friend 
— Mr. Blackwell — but seeing the poem Green 
Gardens in Laventie in The Times, Mr. John 
Lane had written to me, asking, in the event of 
my writing any biography, would I give it to him ; 
and feeling that this request was a tribute to Bim, 
I agreed." 

Feda. "It's all right. He's quite satisfied; 
he knew there was some good reason, he says, only 
he wanted to know about it fully; he is going 
to give you a Book-Test from it now, he says, 
after he has talked to you about it. He likes the 
cover, he's quite satisfied about that, and the bind- 
ing. The title was wrong at first, it was out of 



106 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

place, and all squashed up together; he says I 
mustn't say that, but the letters were too big, 
wrongly arranged." 

(This was so. When the sample of the cover 
was submitted to us, the letters in the name were 
crushed together, owing to too much having been 
placed in one line. His brother Christopher re- 
wrote the title words for me, placing the name on 
one line, and the name of the regiment on the 
line beneath it, thus freeing the style, and reliev- 
ing the cramped appearance.) 

Feda continued: "He is so pleased about the 
dedication! The very last few words of this are 
what he likes. He likes that very much, he says, 
but why did you change it at the end? It made 
him so happy." 

The words of the dedication are as follows: 
"Emboldened by the thought of Bim's spirit of 
Good-Fellowship, and recalling that his first 
thought is ever to share his own, I dedicate this 
book to all those Mothers who have suffered the 
same loss. They will forgive its imperfection, 
and all I have found good to tell of my son here, 
they will feel to be most true of theirs. May the 
Light of Comfort shine on them. >} 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 107 

Now notice this point. When I first wrote the 
dedication, the last sentence stood "May the 
Light of Comfort shine on them, as it has on 
me." 

I subsequently struck out the words "as it has 
on me," on the ground of it being always weak 
and generally irrelevant to mention oneself in con- 
versation or in writing. By the Light of Comfort 
I meant Spiritualism, and my desire was that 
others might be consoled as much as I have been, 
but nevertheless I struck out the last five words. 
Now here you have Bim saying: 

"Why did you change it at the end? It made 
him so happy." 

Yes — because in those five words Bim read an 
open avowal of our having been comforted, how 
greatly through his own unfailing love, he knows. 

I again quote from my record : 

"Something on page 5 is particularly pleasing 
to him, he says. A laugh between you and him. 
Well, you can take it as a whole, but there is an 
especial bit on page 5, he says, for you to look 
at, and to remember." 



108 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

I said at this point, "But the proofs are away 
at the publishers now, and what figured as page 
5 when last I had them to correct will be marked 
so no longer, owing to the interpolations that 
change the pagination." 

"That's why he particularly gives you this 
Book-Test, because you can't verify it till you 
get the proofs again. When they come back, 
look out page 5." 

The notes of a sitting are always read aloud to 
the family on my return, and the days of waiting 
passed quite slowly for all, we were so eager to 
see the reference. 

When the proofs returned, I found on that 
page a description of an evening party Bim had 
given. (I had, myself, heard him on this occasion 
at the telephone in the Cavendish Hotel, Jermyn 
Street, not only inviting but adjuring absent guests 
to come. 

"Now do ! Every one that I like is here ! You 
must come!" 

"Never mind — get up and dress again, and 
come on — do I" 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 109 

"Splendid ... all right. . . ." 

a * * * * » 

He rose from the telephone, and said to me: 
"She said she'd gone to bed, but she's going to 
get up again." 

We laughed together. 

I said: "What tribute to your success as a 
host! to leave one's bed to go to a Ball . . ." and 
his happy face answered me, as he took his way 
again among the throng.) 1 



When the proofs returned I looked on page 5, 
and read as follows : 

"These social gatherings were arranged with 
a characteristic precipitancy sometimes owing to 
the exigency of time, invitation being carried out 
by telephone , while the earlier invited guests were 

already streaming through the door 

. . . People have been known to rise from their 
beds to which they had already repaired, dress 
anew and hasten gladly, if late, to the festive 
scene." 

1 Edward Wyndham Tennant, \th Gren. Guards. By Pamela 
Glenconner. Published by John Lane. 



no THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

"And" adds one of these, "he was the best 
and dearest of companions!" 

We can bear witness to the verification of the 
Book-Test as described above. 

(Signed) D. F. T., 

Glenconner. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Book-Test XXIV. 

In the spring of the year 19 19 we were once 
more established at Wilsford, and on the 31st 
of May I received the following from the Rev. 
Drayton Thomas : 

South Hill Lodge, 

Bromley, 
Kent. 
May $ist. 

Dear Lady Glenconner, 

I have again the pleasure of sending you 
a message received yesterday. 

I believe these Book-Tests will go far to dis- 
credit the hypothesis of telepathy as a sufficient 
explanation of trance mediumship. 

I hope this one will prove accurate in many 
points if not in all. 

If successful, and of not too private a nature, I 
should be very glad to have your account of the 
findings. 

Most sincerely yours, 
C. Drayton Thomas. 
hi 



ii2 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

This was a Book-Test with six points of con- 
tact, four of which we traced. 
I quote from the directions. 

( i ) "This test is from the same room at Wils- 
ford as before; look to the right as you go in 
through the door. Third shelf up, take the fourth 
book from the left, page 33, and read rather 
more than half-way up the page, and you will 
find 'How my Mother's thoughts appear now, 
to me' " 

Following these directions, we found the book, 
and the passage that appeared applicable read as 
follows : 

"Neither Thayer nor any other writer attrib- 
utes sufficient importance to reflection. . . . For 
this reason I deal with reflection at considerable 
length." 

Now there are, it appears to me, two kinds of 
Book-Tests; sometimes the characteristic being 
an atmosphere of allusion, a general trend of 
meaning, in the gist of a given page or in the en- 
tire book, rather than any one recognised point or 
saying. The above seems to me a Book-Test of 
this nature, seeing that the whole chapter deals 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 113 

with the description of life as lived in one element, 
and how it appears to the denizens of another; 
it shows how the conditions of their surroundings 
may render the life, say in water, practically in- 
visible. 1 In such a case as this, the general in- 
tention of the message appears sufficiently evident. 

(2) u Within a span of this book is one whose 
title expresses something connected with David, 
and what Bim was helping him with, a little while 
ago. . . ." 

The book that was readily found in connection 
with these directions was within a span of the 
book first named; it is entitled Caravanning and 
Camping Out: Experiences in the Open Air, by 
Herbert Stone, published by Herbert Jennings. 
David is a devotee of caravanning, and his bed 
is in the garden the summer through. 

The directions continue: 

(3) "As you stand facing these books you will 
notice a small white figure." 

This is so. On the oak panel to the right of 

1 Marvels of Fish Life, by Francis Ward. Published by 
Cassell & Co. 1912. 



ii4 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

these books there hangs a photograph of a child 
of four years old, dressed in white. 

The directions continue: 

(4) "Bim says, on the writing-table in this 
room, standing on the top of it, is something 
connected with him." 

On the writing-table in this room stands a large 
framed photograph taken of him in 19 15, but 
placed there eighteen months subsequently. 

The photograph of the child in white was hung 
here some months before this Book-Test was 
given, and more than eighteen months after Mrs. 
Leonard's visit. 

During this spring we received other Book- 
Tests through Mr. Drayton Thomas, 1 but I will 
close the series now, not because they decline in 
excellence, but because I am anxious to avoid 
the long and detailed reports that characterise 
most books of psychological interest. 

I believe the light of spirit-communication burns 
so dimly largely owing to the mass of debris its 
votaries heap upon its slender flame. It reaches 

1 From Shelley, Browning and Burns. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 115 

us already far too clogged by the superfluities and 
illiteracies of the control, and it is further con- 
fused with the but-partially-swept-aside-identity 
of the medium. How little, then, do we need the 
final and generally destructive touch of its expo- 
nent, which but too often of its vital flame leaves 
only 

U A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest." 



So I will avoid weighting this book with a mass 
of material, giving but two more messages that 
we received that summer, through the same chan- 
nel, and from the same source, though chrono- 
logically they should have had previous place. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Book-Test XXV. 

South Hill Lodge, 
Bromley, 
Kent. 
May 6th, 1919. 

Dear Lady Glenconner, 

The enclosed explains itself. I shall be 
most interested to learn how many out of the 
six items are successful. 

Very sincerely yours, 
C. Drayton Thomas. 



From notes of a sitting with Mrs. Leonard, on 
May 2nd, 19 19. 

Feda. (1) "Now Bim's test is in the study 
at Wilsford. It is to the right as you go in. 
The shelf is about three feet up, and the book 
is third from the left. Look on page 29. It 
has a summary of events in which Bim was in- 
terested. 

(2) "Within a span of the above is a book 

whose title suggests 'tumbling down.' 

116 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 117 

(3) U A new photograph is near these books. 
It was not there previously. 

(4) "An important piece of furniture in the 
room has been moved recently right round to the 
opposite side. 

(5) "The view from the window is other than 
it used to be. The view is different. Feda is 
puzzled how a view can be different, but he says : 
'Something is changed, and it makes the view look 
different, but he says it is only the people who live 
in the house who would know of it." 

One point of contact in this test we could not 
verify. I will take the items now separately, com- 
mencing with the last. 

(5) "The view from the window is changed in 
some way; it is diff event to, what it used to be." 

This is so. A large mulberry tree that stands 
on the lawn lost three of its limbs recently. The 
first one fell in the summer of 19 18, and another 
came down in the following summer. A great 
portion of dead wood was then cut out from the 
tree, to lighten its constitution, and preserve 
what was still alive. This did not, however, pre- 
vent a further bough falling, with the result that, 



n8 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

when this Book-Test was given, a great opening in 
the tree had been effected, revealing the water 
meadows to the right beyond the river, and caus- 
ing a marked change in the view. The excellence 
of this point in the test is evident, if you notice 
the attention drawn to the fact that only "the 
people in the house would know of it" ; and this 
is so, for the mulberry tree still stands ; only those 
would see the difference who can recall it as it 
was formerly. 

(4) "An Important piece of furniture in the 
room has been removed right round to the oppo- 
site side." 

The week before this Book-Test was received 
the grand piano had been shifted the reverse 
way to that in which it had stood for years, the 
keyboard facing the opposite direction; but a dis- 
crepancy is here in that Feda said "An important 
piece of furniture in the room has been removed," 
implying in the same room as that in which the 
Book-Test was to be sought for. The piano, how- 
ever, was in another room to this. 

(3) "A new photograph is near these books; 
it was not there previously" 

This is correct. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 119 

(2) "Within a span is a book whose title sug- 
gests Humbling down! " 

This proved to be an allusion to the Fall of 
Man, in the large copy of Paradise Lost; opposite 
page 201 is Blake's illustration of the "Fall of 
Lucifer" : he is shown, with all his angels, falling 
headlong. 

(1) "Third book counting from the left in the 
Wilsford study, page 29. A summary of events 
that Bim was interested in! y 

The book proved to be Volume III. of Shelley* s 
Poetical Works, edited by Shepherd, and pub- 
lished by Chatto, Windus & Co. in 1888; a large 
paper edition limited to a hundred copies. On 
page 29 we read The Triumph of Life. 

On that page, and onward to the conclusion 
of the poem, I found the lines that follow. 

I ought to make clear that in this passage, ac- 
cording to our custom, only the applicable lines 
are taken. Those discarded are represented by 
dotted lines, which, for one thing, respects the 
metre of the poem, and at the same time shows 
openly that we take only such lines as appear those 
intended. This seems to us to be legitimate, but 
in this particular instance something beyond mu- 



120 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

tilation and selection has occurred. Isn't it re- 
markable, following this plan of elimination, that 
so beautiful and so complete a passage as the one 
given here should emerge, the outcome of the 
Test? 

It is certainly not as Shelley wrote it; but 
doesn't it appear to have acquired an intention of 
its own? 

Book-Test XXVI. 
From THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 

u 

; so on my sight 

Burst a new vision, never seen before; 

And the fair shape waned in the coming light. 
As veil by veil the silent splendour drops 
From Lucifer, amid the chrysolite 

Of Sun-rise, e'er it tinge the mountain tops. 
And as the presence of that fairest planet 
Although unseen, is felt by one who hopes 

That his day y s path may end as he began it 
In that star's smile, whose light is like the scent 
Of a jonquil when evening breezes fan it, 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 121 

So knew I, in that Light's severe excess 
The presence of that shape which on the stream 
Moved, as I moved along the wilderness 

More dimly than a day-appearing dream; 

A light of heaven 



The new Vision, 

and the cold bright car 

With solemn speed and stunning music crost 

The forest, .... from some dread War 
Triumphantly returning 



Behold a wonder worthy of the rhyme 

Of one who from the lowest depths of hell, 

Through every Paradise, and through all glory 

Love led serene, and who returned to, tell 

the wondrous story, 

How all things are transfigured except Love!' 



CHAPTER XIX 

Book-Test XXVII. 

We have had so many messages sent in this 
way through Book-Tests, that I have even been 
careless in keeping them with their directions to- 
gether, so that some are at this moment not avail- 
able; but there is one of these that I would like 
to include here, in recognition of the pleasure it 
brought with it, although I cannot give the par- 
ticulars, for I have not the notes by me. 

It brought proof of how closely those who love 
us on the Other Side are able to follow us, and 
how surely they are aware of our thoughts and 
our activities. To make this meaning clear, I 
must say that the book that I had been working 
upon was at last nearing completion. I had cor- 
rected the final proofs, and returned them to the 
printer, saying to myself, "At last — that is done." 
Thoughts and heart lightened, I was at peace. 

That week I received a Book-Test through Mr. 

122 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 123 

Drayton Thomas, and the passage in Shelley's 
poems that the directions led me to, reads as fol- 
lows: 

" The toil which stole from thee so many an hour 
Is ended, and the fruit is at thy feet; 
No longer, where the woods to frame a bower 
With interlaced branches mix and meet, 
Or where, with sound like many voices sweet 
Waterfalls leap among wild islands green, 
Which framed for my lone boat a lone retreat 
Of moss-grown trees and weeds, shall I be seen — 
But beside thee, where still my heart has ever 
been." 

This last message, and another that I have no 
space for now, chimed so perfectly with our 
thoughts when we received them, that we have 
no slightest doubt that it was Bim's intention to 
intimate to us conclusively that he dwells among 
us, and that our feelings and our thoughts are 
known to him. 

When such communication can be established 
the Grave is robbed of Victory, and the heart 
hears with renewed understanding the words: 

"I will not leave you comfortless." 



CHAPTER XX 

"Who goes there?" 
"Friend." 

"Give the Pass-Word." 
"Service." 

"Pass, Friend, all's well." 

I marvel that the Church should look on the 
activities of Spiritualism as antagonistic to her 
teaching. In its central attack upon materialistic 
thought it should be recognised as a valuable ally. 
For Spiritualism identifies the material with the 
spiritual universe. Here and now, it says, are we 
spiritual beings; here and now in the material 
world does the spiritual world stand revealed 
before us, and within ourselves powers lie hidden 
such as are believed to belong only to angels and 
demi-gods. 

This world, as we with limited vision perceive 
it, is not complete, nor is it set apart from the 
rest of the universe. In all ages, and in all re- 
ligions, there have been some who have known 

124 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 125 

this, and who have dwelt in conscious communion 
with other states of being. Equally true is it 
that these have constantly had to face or flee the 
hostility of the ignorant. 

Those of us who have the new revelation at 
heart feel grateful that at the Lambeth Confer- 
ence, held lately, the subject of Spiritualism was 
given prominence, and it is well that it was so. 
The Church cannot afford to overlook or deny 
the Spiritualism of the present day, because it is 
a living thing, and has brought the living Word 
to many. 

I am not alluding now to the physical phenom- 
ena, significant though this is, but I mean the 
teaching behind the cult of Spiritualism. And 
what is its teaching? It is the renewal of the. 
Divine Promise, "Thou shalt not die but live" 

"But is not this the message the Church gives 
her people?" you will say. "Why turn away to 
hear it from others ?" Well, let us consider this 
point. Is it the message the Church has been 
delivering? Has she not, in the past, insisted 
rather on the resurrection of the body than on 
the immortality of the soul? In Holy Scriptures 
we are nowhere told our physical forms shall rise 



126 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

again. Where texts appear teaching this clumsy 
misunderstanding of truth they have been mis- 
translated, either accidentally or by intent. Take 
the familiar instance of the nineteenth chapter 
of Job. The correct translation is : "Though after 
my skin this body be destroyed, yet without my 
flesh I shall see God." Yet we never hear it read 
like this. The old error is perpetuated. 

I do not mean that the Church still believes 
in the resurrection of the body, no one now thinks 
dissection to be inimical to the Resurrection Morn- 
ing; (and yet — can it be believed? — this was the 
reason why for years dissection was illegal, and 
the progress of medical science seriously retarded, 
while in its interest the odious practice of body- 
snatching prevailed;) but I do mean that it would 
infinitely increase the Church's influence were she 
to recast some of the forms of worship, correct- 
ing misstatements, and reanimating her great ma- 
chinery by a fresh influx of this truth. It is not 
good for people's souls to keep saying what they 
know is not true, and it is quite as dishonest as 
some of the charges brought against Spiritualism. 

The crux of the difficulty felt by some minds 
is that Spiritualism is often spoken of as a religion, 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 127 

as if, in itself, survival were a religious fact; but 
Spiritualism is in no sense a religion. It is not 
more divine to survive Death than it is to live a 
span of earthly existence. What one may truly 
say of Spiritualism is that if the survival of Death 
be scientifically established and accepted, it makes 
belief in a Divine Order far easier, and a spiritual 
life, therefore, easier to find. 

The Church is shackled by mediaeval doctrine, 
and many of her rites and the character of hymns 
chosen are totally out of key with the trend of 
thought of the people. And yet sometimes it 
would almost seem as if the doctrine of the Res- 
urrection of the Body had even to-day its adher- 
ents. Would there have been the bitter outcry 
we have heard as to the graveyards in France 
and the form of headpieces had the Church teach- 
ing been clearer on this point? Would so great 
a desire have been shown to bring the bodies 
back from where they fell so honourably? The 
mourners stand looking down into the pit, and 
there is a great sound of weeping. And this is 
where Spiritualism may be most beneficent. It 
comes forward with the shining words, "Why seek 



128 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

the living with the dead bodies?" Surely we often 
forget the import of these words? 

I have received pressed flowers, strands of 
grass, photographs, even a pencil drawing of the 
grave where lies the body of my son. These offer- 
ings are sent with the utmost tenderness, and are 
received by me with gratitude, but they seem 
strangely irrelevant. I look upon that particular 
patch of soil in France as I might regard any 
wardrobe at one of the schools he had once fre- 
quented that had at one time held his clothes. 
It seems almost laughable to connect him with 
the grave. Yet one cannot expect to correct this 
easily. Herd-thought centres on cemeteries. The 
Human Race has always hugged its Mortality; 
the one thing it was sure of, you see. 

And yet such great movements as Christian 
Science and the Universal Church, the Order of 
the Christian Mystics, and the followers of the 
New Thought, are signs that many people have 
outgrown the archaic teaching. Look at the bap- 
tismal service in the order of Common Prayer. 
It is full of the monkish ignorance of the Middle 
Ages, dark with the threats of a God of Wrath. 

Or consider the Lent rites, the service on Good 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 129 

Friday as it is usually observed. How materialistic 
is the trend of thought, how heavily is the bodily 
side of Christ's death dwelt on, how strongly the 
Crucifixion is emphasised. Here is grave-worship 
again. Or is it the relic of a belief in the Great 
Sacrifice that is to placate the God of Wrath 
towards Man, His creature? if so, Spiritualism 
may again act beneficently if recognised, for her 
teaching is that it is the Life of Christ that is 
to save us, not His crucifixion. 

The character of the Lent service is unwhole- 
some; steeped in a blind mood of solemn misery. 
Just as "prettiness" is the bane of Art, so "so- 
lemnity" has been the bane of Religion. So much 
is considered "secular" by the Church mind, 
whereas the New Dispensation reveals there is 
nothing secular except sin. 

I am not overlooking the Easter Service, but 
here again the stress, surely, is laid upon a false 
assumption; for the Church preaches the Resur- 
rection of Christ as a divine and unique act, while 
we know that it is not in His Resurrection that we 
witness Divinity. It is because in Life He showed 
us what we all may be, and in Death, what we 



130 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

are all doing f that He claims forever our worship 
and our love. 

"The people that lay in darkness have seen a 
great light." 

There are, however, signs of a change in the 
rigid attitude of the Church, and that she should 
change is not only to her own welfare, it is im- 
portant to the well-being of Spiritualism. We 
need her sympathy. Spiritualists are led astray 
if they think their wind-blown taper will shine 
to preservation unless the noble structure of the 
Church is set as a lantern about it; but to the 
Church herself, an open mind toward the growth 
of this subject is imperative. Let her overcome 
her prejudice, and "try this Spirit, whether it be 
of God." To try the Spirit, however, means that 
Churchmen should read the best books on the sub- 
ject, attaching themselves to the Society of Psychi- 
cal Research, and themselves should hold a circle 
of investigation, and this with an impartial mind, 
for at least three years before coming to a de- 
cision. 

They should read a course of Theosophy, and 
when they have become enlightened as to the 
psychic constitution of Man they will find them- 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 131 

selves fitted to serve and help souls on both sides 
of the grave, for there are many on the further 
side in need of ministration. 

Accepted religion teaches the Communion of 
Saints, and we tell of the communication of souls. 
Is there any difference save in degree? Mortals 
must be souls first before they are saints, the fruit 
must ripen. The harvest before it is in the barn 
is in the blade, and Christ demonstrated in His 
own example that after death it is good to meet 
and speak with our friends. 

Here someone will say: "That is quite differ- 
ent, what we object to is the medium." 

This is a remark you may hear constantly; it 
stands for great fastidiousness, refinement, an 
impeccable taste. "If I must die, I must die; 
but don't touch my top-knot, says the Peacock" — 
and so true is this, that you might pervert the 
text and say that with these people "Perfect taste 
casteth out Love," for they infinitely prefer 
neither to hear of nor from "precious friends hid 
in death's dateless night" rather than jar their 
own feelings. 

They would like communication, but they do 
not want it in this way; but in making their 



132 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

protest against a medium they are on a par with 
one who might say, "I like a picnic, but must 
there be a hamper?" or "Music is a great solace, 
certainly, but I object to the instrument." 

Unfortunately progress in regard to this mat- 
ter was retarded by hundreds of years through 
the wholesale slaughter in the Middle Ages of 
those with psychic power called witches ; * and in 
the present stage of development the services of 
a medium, for spirit communication, are usually 
essential. 

But here is a point wherein Spiritualists should 
show discernment. Let them be circumspect in 
the character of those whom they select, and hav- 
ing found a medium whom they respect, let them 
be content and constant, for the channel deepens 
and the current strengthens, with regularity and 
use. 

One change the Church has made of im- 
portance. Before the Reformation, the day fol- 
lowing All Saints' Day was observed as one on 



^he inhabitants of the Hebrides, and other outlying parts 
of Europe, are richer in second-sight and clair-audience than 
people elsewhere, because the witch-hunt was not pushed so far. 
They were unmolested. 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 133 

which to remember and pray for the human 
failures, the wanderers, who had passed from 
earth unawakened, the mystic Christ within them 
still unborn. After the Reformation, when the 
narrow-minded heresy decreed that physical death 
fixed for ever the condition of the individual, 
All Souls' Day was obliterated from the calendar. 

Now All Souls' Day has been replaced, and 
although this has been done chiefly through a 
desire on the part of the clergy to prevent their 
congregations flocking to mediums in order to 
establish communication with the dead, yet it is 
a tacit recognition by the Church of the truth of 
one of the main teachings of Spiritualism. 

The fundamental mistake that is commonly 
made lies in believing those we love are in any 
sense changed through having experienced the 
incident of death. By the shedding of the ma- 
terial body, their individuality is neither dimin- 
ished nor enhanced. If they desire to communi- 
cate with those they love, and have the knowledge 
that this is possible, they will do so just as 
naturally as they would have used the telephone 
or sent a telegram in previous days. 

Sometimes you hear the objection advanced 



134 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

that the means of communication are so paltry; 
but when my son was in France, he took a pen 
with which to communicate with his Mother; he 
did not think it too trivial an instrument. It 
served. And it is the same now: he takes what 
he finds serviceable to this end, and there is 
nothing sacrilegious or astonishing in the matter. 

In the Scriptures, how many instances are there 
not recorded of God speaking to His people 
through various manifestations of the Spirit, 
taking to His use even tables of stone? Is it 
contrary to a conception of His inalienable mercy 
that we should believe that to-day He speaks to 
us in the spirit of those we love ? 

But with all this said, let us see to it that we, 
who wish the truth established, may be diligent 
in the sorting of the false from the true. Let 
us choose the more admirable from among the 
less worthy expressions of spiritual activities. 
There is great need for this. Let it be disen- 
tangled from the fortune-telling, the fraud, the 
foolish jocosities and vulgarities with which this 
subject has been too long enmeshed. 

It is this odious confusion which has done so 
much to depreciate the truth; it has left the sub- 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 135 

ject open to the rightly strong and just denuncia- 
tion of the Church on the one hand, while on the 
other it is delivered over to the Press, which treats 
it with inexcusable levity. Happily the conditions 
now existing have brought about a change in this 
direction. The widespread suffering and the in- 
fluence of grief have ennobled Spiritualism. It 
has been cleansed from many impurities, and 
greatly rid of the defects that characterised it 
before the War. If you stay to think of it, you 
will see that it could not have been otherwise; 
for on the one side you have the prevailing spirit 
of exalted sorrow, and upon the other the great 
crowd of witnesses. There are so many hands 
thrust back to clasp our own here, so many hearts 
eager to tell us that they are yet near us and 
alive, that there is no room for charlatanry, even 
were people inclined to be fraudulent. "There is 
no room for death" x 

Sir Thomas Browne observes somewhere, that 
the Banner of Truth would never trail in the 
dust were it not for the standard-bearer, and I 
have great apprehension lest I should jeopardise 

1 This poem is given in full in Appendix III. 



136 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

in any degree by my own inadequacy what I hold 
to be true. It is certain that no subject suffers 
so richly at the hands of its adherents as this 
matter of Spiritualism, and I think the chief fault 
lies in the direction of confusing it with religion. 
Spiritualism, I must repeat, is in no sense a re- 
ligion. From my earliest years I was educated in 
this line of thought and given literature on the 
subject, but never was I led for a moment to think 
that it should stand in the place of religion. It 
was given rather as a light of knowledge in which 
to view the teaching of Christianity, and in this 
light to comprehend the amazing narrative of the 
New Testament; and the study of the phenomena 
of Spiritualism supports rather than conflicts with 
these narratives of the life of Christ; there is 
good reason to believe that some of the miracles 
wrought by Him were effected through knowledge 
of the very laws that govern the phenomena of 
the present day. And when we consider this, 
is not the attitude of pious people towards this 
subject deplorable? Consider their ignorance of 
its teaching, their suspicion, their contempt; yet 
such as are able to bring toward it an unbiased 
mind, surely these will become aware of a like- 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 137 

ness between its phenomena and the experiences 
of the disciples of the Lord? 

In looking back on my early years I recall one 
experience with especial gratitude. It was my 
privilege to sit in a fully developed and private 
circle, a circle distinguished for its authority and 
high standing, and notable as providing Frederic 
Myers with much material that appeared as evi- 
dence in his great book, Human Personality after 
Death. I can sum up quite briefly the outcome 
of this; I learned that death is an incident in life,, 
and life is continuous; that communication with 
those we call the dead, under certain conditions, 
is possible; that the conditions under which those 
we call the dead exist are not greatly dissimilar 
to those of earthly life. I learned that the Spir- 
itual World is immanent, and that it lies with our- 
selves how far and how clearly we perceive this; 
and finally I learned that it is by the life of Jesus 
that we shall be "saved," and not by His death, 
and this only so far as we follow, in our own lives, 
His divine example. 

I look back on all this and see its solid value, 
and the people concerned in the movement who 
visited my parents' home — Edward Maitland, 



138 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

Gerald Massey, Gurney, Myers, Crookes, Mount 
Temple, Wilberforce — these I heard of, or heard 
converse, and their books lay on our tables — let 
me take this opportunity to greet them, and salute 
their names anew. 

I record this merely to make clear that when 
the time came to need the comfort proffered by 
Spiritualism, I turned to it as naturally as leaves 
turn to the light. And in no flight of an emo- 
tional nature nor in a credulous dependence, but 
I did it in just as common-sense and practical a 
manner as I would have gone about to book a 
passage or to send a cable to New Zealand, had 
it so chanced that my son had gone to that quarter 
of the globe. 

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is not 
death, for death is a means of progression. The 
last enemy that shall be swallowed up is the 
separation of death, for this is the outcome of 
materialism, and anything that obstructs instead 
of revealing, wars against God. Will not the 
Church then recognise the higher Spiritualism, 
thereby rekindling the fires upon her altars, and 
regaining evidence of those activities of Spirit 
which illumined the early years of the Christian 



THE EARTHEN VESSEL 139 

faith? Its evidences are but the shadow of God, 
yet some testimony of His nearness to the exiled 
souls of men. 

"For where will God be absent? In His Face 
Is light, but in His Shadow healing too. 
Let Guido touch the Shadow and be healed." 



APPENDIX I 

Mrs. Leonard's Account of her Meeting 
with Feda. 

"Commonplace minds usually condemn 
everything that is beyond the scope of 
their understanding." — Rochefoucauld. 

In December 19x0, I met two sisters, to whom 
I was introduced when I was out visiting some 
friends. After exchanging a few words with me, 
one of them asked me if I was a Spiritualist? 
I replied that I was very interested in the subject, 
and finding they were of the same mind we de- 
cided to sit together for development . They came 
to my house on an appointed day and we selected 
a small table in bamboo, and we sat round it with 
our hands resting on its surface, but for quite a 
considerable number of sittings, without any re- 
sult. At the twenty-seventh sitting one of the 
sisters became very impatient, and taking her 
hands off the table walked away and sat reading 
a book at the further end of the room. Within 
two or three minutes the table began to move. 
We received messages from several friends, spelt 
out by means of tilting the table ; my Mother com- 
municated, and several others, then a long name 

140 



APPENDIX I 141 

was spelt out beginning with F. We could not 
pronounce it, so we asked if we might select a 
few of the letters, and make use of those as a 
name? The answer "yes" was given, so we 
picked out F.E.D.A., and this is how my ac- 
quaintance with Feda originated. 

Feda told us she was my great-great-grand- 
mother, a Hindoo by birth, that she was brought 
up by a Scottish family, and that she had died 
very soon after her marriage, at the age of thir- 
teen. I remembered that my Mother had told 
me of this Hindoo ancestress. Feda then told 
us that she was going to control me as "she had 
work to do through me, because something was 
going to happen on the Earth plane in a great 
way and my services would be wanted." 

I was not pleased with this, as I wanted to 
develop normal clairvoyance, but Feda said, "No, 
you must be controlled, because otherwise your 
own mind would interfere with everything we 
wish to give, through you." So I began to think 
seriously about it, although I did not want to be 
entranced. 

We continued our table-sittings, to which Feda 
came regularly. She was so helpful and com- 
forting that I became quite fond of her, and 
many of the messages were of evidential value, as 
we were told things that we did not know, and 
only afterwards proved them to be true; she 
would tell us of occurrences happening at a dis- 



142 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

tance which we subsequently found correct. We 
went on like this for several months, and I began 
to feel that perhaps I was wrong in refusing to 
allow her to work through me. She was de- 
lighted when I told her so, but although we sat 
regularly for eighteen months, she did not suc- 
ceed, indeed it was only when I gave up trying 
and was getting rather bored by the proceedings 
that she was able to succeed. One evening, feel- 
ing very tired of what was happening, I thought 
I fell asleep for a few moments. When I awoke 
I was surprised to see my friends bending over 
me, in great interest. They told me I had been 
in a trance for an hour and a half, that Feda had 
spoken through me, bringing many messages 
from friends on the Other Side. She had re- 
peated that a dark time was coming in which she 
had work to do, and that I would be needed as a 
medium through whom she would be able to bring 
assurance of a life after death. 

We had many sittings; they did not affect my 
health disastrously. I am much better and 
stronger in health since I developed than I was 
before. 

At first it was not easy for Feda to concentrate 
on what was serious or advisable. She had to 
train herself to the service ; sometimes it was diffi- 
cult to get her to attend to what we wished. It 
took eighteen months before she was proficient. 
When she became able to do what we wanted 
she said I must take up the work professionally. 
I was very diffident about it, as I did not think 



APPENDIX I 143 

I could do this work to order, but Feda promised 
that she would look after me from the commence- 
ment. 

I started first by holding circles in Western 
London; from the first moment they paid my 
expenses. After that the War broke out, and in 
a few months' time people were coming to me 
wanting test messages about those who had 
passed on. Feda then asked me to give up my 
public sittings, as the conditions, she said, were 
not always good. She told me that at a circle on 
a previous day a boy who had been killed in the 
War had been most anxious to speak to his 
Mother in the circle, but could not get through 
to her because two people present caused a frivol- 
ous and uncongenial condition. 

So I gave up my public circles, and commenced 
private sittings, and very soon I had far more 
people wanting to sit than I could accommodate. 

Feda has told us that the benefit of her work 
with me is twofold. It is a period of service 
that is required of her, and while she ministers 
to others she makes spiritual progress in her 
own soul. She had so short a term of earthly 
life that probably in this work she acquires some- 
thing of the training and knowledge that is de- 
rived from a span of earthly existence. 

Ever since the moment of her first speaking 
through me till now, she has been working — to 
use her own words — "as just a messenger." 

Gladys Osborne Leonard. 



APPENDIX II 

From Plato's "Divine Dialogues." 

"We shall do our utmost, Socrates/' replies 
Crito, "to obey you. But how will you be 
buried?" 

"Just as you please," says Socrates, "if I do 
not slip from you. At the same time," looking 
upon us with a gentle smile, "I cannot," says 
he, "attain my end in persuading Crito that this 
is Socrates who discourses with you, and 
methodises all the parts of this discourse; and 
still he fancies that Socrates is the thing that shall 
shortly see death. He confounds me with my 
corpse; and in that view, asks me how I will be 
buried. And all this after the long discourse 
that I have made to you lately, in order to show 
that as soon as I shall have taken the poison, I 
shall stay no longer with you, but shall depart 
from hence, and go to enjoy the felicity of the 
blessed; in a word, all that I have said for your 
consolation and mine, is to no purpose, but is all 
lost with reference to him. I beg that you will 
bail for me to Crito, but after a contrary manner 
to that in which he offered to bail me to my 

144 



APPENDIX II 145 

judges; for he engaged that I would not be gone. 
Pray engage for me, that I shall no sooner be 
dead, than I shall be gone, to the end that poor 
Crito may bear my death more steadily, and that 
when he sees my body burned or interred, he may 
not despair, as if I suffered great misery, and 
say at my funeral that Socrates is laid out, Socra- 
tes is carried out ; Socrates is interred. For you 
must know, my dear Crito," says he, turning to 
him, "that speaking amiss of death is not only a 
fault in the way of discourse, hut likewise 
wounds the soul. You should have known that 
my body is to be buried; and that you are at lib- 
erty to inter it as you please, and in the manner 
that is most conformable to our laws and cus- 
toms." 

From The Phado: a Dialogue on the Immor- 
tality of the Soul. 



APPENDIX III 

No coward soul is mine, 

No trembler in the world's storm-troubled 
sphere ; 
I see Heaven's glories shine, 

And faith shines equal, arming me from fear. 

O God, within my breast, 

Almighty ever-present Deity, 
Life, that in me has rest, 

As I — undying life — have power in thee. 

Vain are the thousand creeds 

That move men's hearts: unutterably vain, 
Worthless as withered weeds, 

Or idlest froth amid the boundless main 

To waken doubt in one 

Holding so fast by thine infinity, 
So surely anchored on 

The steadfast rock of Immortality. 

With wide-embracing love 

Thy spirit animates eternal years, 
Pervades and broods above, 

Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears. 
146 



APPENDIX III 147 

Though earth and man were gone, 
And suns and universes ceased to be, 

And Thou wert left alone, 

Every existence would exist in Thee. 

There is no room for Death, 

Nor atom that his might could render void; 
Thou — Thou art Being and Breath, 

And what Thou art may never be destroyed. 

Emily Bronte. 



APPENDIX IV 

"Recognised Intelligence." 

During the Autumn of 1920, while this book 
was being prepared for publication, I had a sitting 
with Mrs. Leonard, in the course of which a 
Book-Test of the very latest development was 
given me. It is a scheme planned to obviate still 
further the possibility of the operation of 
telepathy, or the action of subconscious memory; 
and to compass this, the Test is devised to be 
found on the front page of the issue of "The 
Times" newspaper, for the following day. 

The father of the Rev. Charles Drayton 
Thomas is said to have been the inventor of this 
form of Book-Test; and a certain number have 
already been received. It is peculiarly valuable, 
as it meets the objection of the sceptic in spirit- 
communication, who holds that we may retain in 
the subliminal memory the contents of all the 
books that we have ever read, even to the num- 
bers on the pages, and who consequently discounts 
the validity of the more usual form. 

It is placed among the Appendices here as this 
book was already too far advanced in production 
for it to be included in the text. 

148 



APPENDIX IV 149 



BOOK-TEST, October iith, 1920. 

(Directions.) 

1. "Now in 'The Times' of to-morrow, on the 
front page, in the second column about half-way 
down, you will find Stephen's name" 

(Tracing of the above.) 

In the second column of "The Times" of Oc- 
tober 1 2th, halfway down the page, was the name 
Stefano. 

(Continuation of directions.) 

2. "Now close to it is a name 'suggesting' a 
place that Bim knew very well, and liked tre- 
mendously when he was on the Earth Plane." 

(Tracing of the above.) 

An inch lower than this name Stefano, we 
found the name Freda, the name of a friend who 
used to ask him to Bournemouth, Fontmel Priory. 
When a child he loved this place so much that 
he called it "The House of Wish." 

(See Memoir of E. W. T. by his Mother.) 

(Continuation of directions.) 

"Now, in the first column, near the top, are 
the names of two people, names in the family, 
both of whom have passed on and are with Bim 



150 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

on the Other Side. One has often been men- 
tioned in sittings." 

(Tracing of the above.) 

In the first column, near the top, the two names 
Harold and Pamela occur. Both are names in 
the family, both people having these names are 
on the Other Side, and one of them (Pamela) 
has been mentioned often during Bim's sittings. 

(Continuation of directions.) 

"Now in the third column, he thinks within 
two inches of the top (of the paper?), are words 
that may form a message for Bim, a message that 
he says 'he would have liked to have said to you 
on the 22nd f x and don't forget, he says — it's only 
a few words, because some other words close to 
it would spoil it." 

(Tracing of the above.) 

In the third column, within two inches of the 
top — of the paper — are the words: 

"My Love Always" 

The words immediately preceding this are, 
"make a point of seeing T's fiancee: to your ad- 
vantage to do so," thus entirely endorsing the 
warning that "other words close to his message 

^he 22nd of September (1916) was the date of Bim's 
passing. 



APPENDIX IV 151 

would spoil it" — "only a few words: My love 
always." 

(Continuation of directions.) 

"Going back to the first column, there is the 
Lord's name, lower part of the first column, and 
the name of a close relation of his who has passed 
over. Both names are close together, within half 
an inch." 

N.B. — Feda always alludes to Bim's father as 
the Lord. 

(Tracing of the above.) 

In the first column towards the lower part, 
the name Edward appears, and had Feda said 
"connection" instead of "relation" the test would 
have been complete, for close to the name 
Edward is the name Alexander, one representing 
a close connection with the Tennant family. 

Thus in a Book-Test with six points of contact, 
all with one slight inexactitude, have been traced 
satisfactorily. 

Pamela Glenconner. 



CONCLUSION 

And now my work draws to a close. 

It will be good if it may cause people to think 
that there is something that is not evil in Spirit- 
ualism. 

In the beauty and gentleness of the power 
behind these quotations, in the healing consola- 
tion they bring, in the Divine Source of sympathy 
of which they tell, surely readers of this book 
will be able to recognise something of the writer 
of those simple words? 

"Eternal Love — 

from Bim." 

Those who are discarnate have the fuller life, 
theirs is "an ampler ether, a diviner air," and 
if they love us, their wish is to share it with us, 
and the more they can do this, the greater is their 
happiness and ours. 

To those who would question, "Is it wise or 
152 



CONCLUSION 153 

right to bring them down to us; ought we to 
keep them within our earthly conditions?" I would 
answer that you cannot bring back that which has 
never departed, and in regard to the possible 
detriment of their life through our earthly con- 
ditions, I would reply that you do not limit or 
cramp a Spring day by opening a window. There 
is sufficient fullness of warmth and air outside to 
fill a room with light and beauty, and yet the day 
itself to be no whit diminished. 

Often I desire that the truth of this possibility 
of communicating with those we love who have 
gone on, may be the knowledge of all; but it 
seems as if to so many the need of evidence is 
too great — it blocks the way. They wait on the 
threshold of what might be a supreme joy to 
them, actuated more by mistrust, and a hundred 
other feelings, than by love. The thought of 
this is painful; it is like closing a door in the 
face of those who would minister to us; an un- 
gracious act. 

It is largely true that the quality of the com- 
munication we receive depends greatly on our 
capacity for appreciating what is given, for the 
gold is mixed so deeply and so lamentably with 



154 THE EARTHEN VESSEL 

dross, that you must sift and sift unceasingly; 
but if we have an open mind and a loving heart 
we receive proof as well as comfort in greater 
abundance than one can tell. Those who do not 
care for it will not have the knowledge thrust 
upon them, and those others who, as we read in 
the Bible, "do hold to the side of Death, do find 
if ; but for all such as are ready to investigate 
this matter with fair-mindedness and patience 
there awaits 

"A morn, no heart imagine th." 

Death is a gateless barrier, and those on either 
side of it who know this, pass through; and 
"sorrow and sighing flee away." 



Here's not also human life? 
Have not we, unthinking creatures. 
Slaves of folly, fear, and strife, 
Voices of two different natures? 

Have not we too? — yes, we have — > 
Echoes from we know not whence, 
Voices from beyond the grave, 
Recognised intelligence. 

Such rebounds the inward ear 
Catches sometimes from afar; 
Listen, ponder, hold them dear, 
For of God, of God they are. 



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